BackgroundThe number of ophthalmologists trained in Brazil has increased, but their satisfaction with the medical residency curriculum is unclear.The purpose of this study is to evaluate the satisfaction and self-confidence of graduates of a reference ophthalmology residency program in Brazil and to analyze whether there is a difference in these parameters among those who graduated in different decades.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional web-based study conducted in 2022 with 379 ophthalmologists who graduated from the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. We aim to obtain data on satisfaction and self-confidence in clinical and surgical practices.ResultsIn total, 158 questionnaires were completed (41.68% response rate); 104 respondents completed their medical residency between 2010 and 2022, 34 between 2000 and 2009, and only 20 before 2000. Most respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with their programs (98.7%). Respondents reported insufficient exposure to low vision rehabilitation (62.7%), toric intraocular implants (60.8%), refractive surgery (55.7%), and orbital trauma surgery (84.8%), particularly among graduates before 2010. They also reported insufficient training in certain non-clinical areas, such as office management (61.4%), health insurance management (88.6%), and personnel and administration skills (74.1%). We found that respondents who graduated a long time ago had higher confidence in clinical and surgical practices.ConclusionsBrazilian ophthalmology residents and UNICAMP graduates expressed high levels of satisfaction with their residency training programs. Those who completed the program a long time ago appear to have more confidence in clinical and surgical practices. There were clinical and non-clinical areas with insufficient training identified for improvement.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-023-04410-1.