CT Surgery Resident Showdown

What Is The Showdown?

Presented by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) and the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS), the CT Surgery Resident Showdown is a challenging cognitive skills competition being held in both North America and Europe. The top three teams will be invited to compete in the Showdown at the EACTS and STS Annual Meetings.  

Two-person teams of cardiothoracic surgery residents will face off against one another in a test of knowledge in five cardiothoracic surgery categories: cardiac, congenital, thoracic, history of the specialty, and decision making. North American semi-finalists will face off against the winning European semi-finalist team during the final showdown at the 2026 STS Annual Meeting.  

Team registration will take place June 1-30, 2025. Residents interested in participating will need to sign up with a partner (an eligible resident from the same program); each will take an individual online qualifying exam.  

All competitors must have or create a profile in the STS web portal to access the qualifying exam.

Who Is Eligible to Participate?

The North American competition is for two-person teams of residents enrolled in an ACGME- or a Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada-approved thoracic surgery residency program. The European competition is for two-person teams enrolled in a cardiac, thoracic, or cardiothoracic trainee program, who will not complete formal training until February 2026 at the earliest (a formal of letter of status signed by the program director will be required upon registration for the qualifying exam).

Congenital and ICU residents/fellows, as well as past Jeopardy/Showdown finalists, are not eligible to participate.
 

Important Dates

• Team Sign-ups: June 1-30, 2025
• Qualifying Exam: July 15-31, 2025
• European Semi-Finals Tournament: Oct. 8-11, 2025 (EACTS Annual Meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark)
  • The winning team will receive paid air travel, travel expenses, and registration to STS 2026.
• North American Semi-Finals Tournament and the Final Showdown: Jan. 29–Feb. 1, 2026 (STS Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA)
  • The three NA semi-finalist teams will receive paid air travel, travel expenses, and registration to STS 2026. 
     

Qualifying Exam

Individuals will be given one attempt at answering 100 questions in 30 minutes. Individual scores will be combined for each team, and the top three North American teams will be invited to the live semi-final competition at 2026 STS Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. The top three European teams will be invited to compete in the semi-finals at the EACTS Annual Meeting in October 2025. The winning European and North American teams will compete for the championship title during the STS Annual Meeting in January 2026.
 

Prizes

Winners of the Final Showdown will be the 2026 CT Surgery Resident Showdown champions and receive bragging rights, a trophy, and complimentary access to one of the educational activities in the STS Learning Center.  

The CT Surgery Resident Showdown is sponsored by the STS Cardiothoracic Surgery E-Book, the most complete and authoritative online and mobile resource for cardiothoracic surgery information in the world.