Background: Medical education is challenging as medical students have to confront varied stressors such as academic pressures, work over load, and issues pertaining to professional competence.

Aims: The present study aimed to examine perceived stress and coping strategies among medical students in Saudi Arabia

Methods: This cross–sectional study consisted of 165 medical students from King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. Stress was measured by using Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale, (PSS –10) (Cohen, 1983 & Cohen and Williamson, 1988)) and coping styles was measured by using Coping strategy inventory, Short Form (Addison, et al., 2007).

Result: One way analysis of variance revealed significant difference between coping behavior of participants with three levels of perceived stress in terms of problem–focused engagement, emotional focused engagement and emotional focused disengagement. Implications for reducing the effect of perceived stress among undergraduate medical students and future research directions are discussed.