Objective: Cytological examination is a very important modality in diagnosing, staging and treating of numerous diseases. Due to the varied techniques available in sampling, a wide variety of pre–analytical errors become possible. The present study was therefore conducted between January and December 2019 using 4168 samples to analyse the prevalence of pre analytical errors and their distribution among rejected samples Methods: This study was conducted for a 1 year period at a tertiary care hospital in Chennai. All the samples received in cytopathology were considered. Results: Among the 4168 samples, 464 samples were asked to be repeated and 66 samples were rejected. Most of the rejections were attributed to insufficient samples (62.1%) followed by discrepancy in registration (18.2%) and soiled TRF (9.1%) respectively Conclusions: Pre–analytical errors are a significant cause of rejection or repeat of samples in cytology. Regular training and repeated reinforcement are crucial in reducing these errors to ensure correct results and faster turnaround times.