In almost all multicellular organisms, cell suicide or apoptosis appears to play an important role in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Apoptosis is tightly regulated by a set of genes that either promote apoptosis or promote cell survival. Although a number of stimuli appear to trigger the process of apoptosis, there are two major signaling pathways of apoptosis; the death receptor pathway and the death receptor-independent or mitochondrial pathway. There is evidence to suggest that, under certain conditions and in some cell types; these two pathways may cross talk. During the past 5 years, rapid progress has been made in understanding the molecular basis of apoptosis. In this brief review, I will summarize the various molecular steps of apoptosis.