BackgroundSince the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many precautionary measures have been set to curb the transmission of the virus. That has led to changes, most notably in surgical education, like lack of surgical exposure and clinical activities. However, the question aiming at the impact of changes made by the COVID-19 pandemic on surgical education and its extent remains unanswered.Materials & methodsAn electronic survey was distributed among surgical residents and consultants from all over Saudi Arabia, starting from the 6th till the 21st of July, 2021. Descriptive statistics were presented using counts and proportions (%). Study subjects were compared with the different perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic by using Chi-square test. A p-value cut-off point of 0.05 at 95% CI was used to determine statistical significance.ResultsA total of 243 out of 500 surgical residents and consultants responded to the survey, giving a response rate of 48.6%. The majority were general surgeons (50.5%) and cardiothoracic surgeons (21.8%). Nearly 66% of surgeons, both residents and consultants, strongly agreed on the importance of training for infectious disease outbreaks. 44.7% of the consultants and 48% of the residents showed their willingness to respond to the pandemic regardless of its severity. Over 70% of surgeons agreed that developing clinical skills was compromised by the COVID-19 pandemic, and 40% expected a negative impact of the COVID-19 on their operative skills. Simulation was ranked best for disaster medicine training by over 77% of the respondents. The most common concern among surgeons during the COVID-19 pandemic was their family’s health and safety. Regarding virtual curriculum components, online practice questions and surgical videos were preferred by the surgical consultant and resident, respectively.ConclusionsAlthough the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted surgical education, it has highlighted the alarming need for adopting new components. For surgical training programs, we recommend improving the virtual curriculum, incorporating disaster medicine training, providing psychological services, and prioritizing immunization and treatment access for surgeons’ families.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-023-04302-4.