Cardiopulmonary Interactions (CPI) refer to the interplay between the respiratory and cardiovascular systems during the respiratory and cardiac cycle. These interactions vary depending on whether the patient is in spontaneous or mechanical ventilation and affect the preload and afterload of both ventricles at different levels. Understanding CPI is essential to the management of critically ill patients, where preload and afterload manipulations are specialy important to optimize cardiac output and oxygen delivery to the periphery. The present article reviews the physiological principles required to understand CPI in patients both in spontaneous and mechanical ventilation using specific clinical scenarios to facilitate its use as part of day to day clinical practice.