Is possible to check if a collection or sub collection exists?

Yes, there is. You can use docs.length to know if the subcollection exists.

I made a sample to guide you, hope it helps.

 this.db.collection('users').doc('uid')
  .get().limit(1).then(
  doc => {
    if (doc.exists) {
      this.db.collection('users').doc('uid').collection('friendsSubcollection').get().
        then(sub => {
          if (sub.docs.length > 0) {
            console.log('subcollection exists');
          }
        });
    }
  });

This is how I was able to check if a collection exists?

I target the document path first, then if it exists, It means the collection afterwards exists and I can access it.

>  db.collection("collection_name").document("doc_name").get()
>        .addOnCompleteListener(new OnCompleteListener<DocumentSnapshot>() {
>                     @Override
>                     public void onComplete(@NonNull Task<DocumentSnapshot> task) {
>                         if(task.isSuccessful()){
>                             DocumentSnapshot result = task.getResult();
>                             if(result.exists()){
>                                *//this means the document exist first, hence the 
>                                 //collection afterwards the doc_name will 
>                                 //exist...now I can access the collection*  
> db.collection("collection_name").document("doc_name").collection("collection_name2").get()
> .addOnCompleteListener(task1 -> {    if(task1.isSuccessful()){
>       ...
>     } }); } } });

Mateus' Answer didn't help me. Probably it has been changed over the time.

.collection(..).get() returns a QuerySnapshot which has the property size, so I just did:

admin.firestore
     .collection('users')
     .doc('uid')
     .collection('sub-collection')
     .limit(1)
     .get()
     .then(query => query.size);

To be more precise:

const querySnapshot = await admin.firestore().collection('users').doc('uid').collection('sub-collection').limit(1).get()
if (querySnapshot.empty) {console.log('sub-collection not existed')}