Colorectal cancer is a common malignant tumor of the digestive system. Its morbidity and mortality rank among the highest in the world. Cancer development is associated with aberrant signaling pathways. Autophagy is a process of cell self-digestion that maintains the intracellular environment and has a bidirectional regulatory role in cancer. Apoptosis is one of the important death programs in cancer cells and is able to inhibit cancer development. Studies have shown that a variety of substances can regulate autophagy and apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells through signaling pathways, and participate in the regulation of autophagy on apoptosis. In this paper, we focus on the relevant research on autophagy in colorectal cancer cells based on the involvement of related signaling pathways in the regulation of apoptosis in order to provide new research ideas and therapeutic directions for the treatment of colorectal cancer.