INTRODUCTION: Suicidal ideation is the thought or plan to suicide. It is an important public health issue. A severe cause of mortality worldwide is suicide. Previous studies have analyzed suicidal ideation in patients who have already attempted self-harm. In this study, we aim to find out the prevalence of suicidal ideation and knowledge of danger signs of suicide in a nonclinical population, especially among students of a medical college. METHODOLOGY: An institutional-based analytical cross-sectional study was conducted from February 2021 to October 2021 in a private medical college in Chennai. Data were collected from the medical students of the private medical college using Beck's suicidal ideation scale, (DASS-21), and a semistructured questionnaire. Students aged above 18 years and willing to participate in this study were included. The sample size was calculated as 304 by taking reference value from a previous study by Ahmed RESULTS: The prevalence of suicidal ideation among the study population was found to be 9%. Factors like the presence of depression, anxiety, stress, dissatisfied lifestyle, history of smoking, drugs, and alcohol consumption were found to be contributing to suicidal ideation. About 37.7% of the study population felt that they knew about the danger signs of suicide. CONCLUSION: Promotion of mental health and screening for mental health disorders need to be done regularly. Identified risk factors for suicidal ideation should be addressed and mitigated.