diff --git a/mock_tests/test_collection.py b/mock_tests/test_collection.py
index 17b9dacc2..8fd489b60 100644
--- a/mock_tests/test_collection.py
+++ b/mock_tests/test_collection.py
@@ -406,3 +406,24 @@ def test_grpc_forbidden_exception(forbidden: weaviate.collections.Collection) ->
 
     with pytest.raises(weaviate.exceptions.InsufficientPermissionsError):
         forbidden.data.insert_many([{"name": "test"}])
+
+
+def test_collection_exists(weaviate_mock: HTTPServer) -> None:
+    non_existing = "NonExistingCollection"
+    erroring = "ErroringCollection"
+    weaviate_mock.expect_request(f"/v1/schema/{non_existing}").respond_with_json(
+        response_json={"error": [{"message": "collection not found"}]}, status=404
+    )
+    weaviate_mock.expect_request(f"/v1/schema/{erroring}").respond_with_json(
+        response_json={"error": [{"message": "this is an error"}]}, status=500
+    )
+
+    with weaviate.connect_to_local(
+        port=MOCK_PORT, host=MOCK_IP, grpc_port=MOCK_PORT_GRPC, skip_init_checks=True
+    ) as client:
+        assert not client.collections.exists(non_existing)
+        with pytest.raises(weaviate.exceptions.WeaviateInvalidInputError):
+            client.collections.exists("")
+        with pytest.raises(weaviate.exceptions.UnexpectedStatusCodeError) as e:
+            client.collections.exists(erroring)
+            assert e.value.status_code == 500
diff --git a/weaviate/collections/collection/sync.py b/weaviate/collections/collection/sync.py
index 88f728b30..c8eaf7be9 100644
--- a/weaviate/collections/collection/sync.py
+++ b/weaviate/collections/collection/sync.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 from weaviate.collections.query import _QueryCollection
 from weaviate.collections.tenants import _Tenants
 from weaviate.connect.v4 import ConnectionSync
+from weaviate.exceptions import UnexpectedStatusCodeError
 from weaviate.types import UUID
 
 from .base import _CollectionBase
@@ -204,8 +205,10 @@ def exists(self) -> bool:
         try:
             self.config.get(simple=True)
             return True
-        except Exception:
-            return False
+        except UnexpectedStatusCodeError as e:
+            if e.status_code == 404:
+                return False
+            raise e
 
     def shards(self) -> List[Shard]:
         """Get the statuses of all the shards of this collection.
diff --git a/weaviate/collections/collections/executor.py b/weaviate/collections/collections/executor.py
index 69b2baa64..8497cdf51 100644
--- a/weaviate/collections/collections/executor.py
+++ b/weaviate/collections/collections/executor.py
@@ -318,6 +318,8 @@ def exists(self, name: str) -> executor.Result[bool]:
         """
         _validate_input([_ValidateArgument(expected=[str], name="name", value=name)])
         path = f"/schema/{_capitalize_first_letter(name)}"
+        if name == "":
+            raise WeaviateInvalidInputError("Collection name cannot be an empty string.")
 
         def resp(res: Response) -> bool:
             return res.status_code == 200