Background: Appropriate rectal cancer staging is crucial for successful surgical and radiation treatment planning and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is considered the state-of-the-art modality for achieving this goal. Content: Rectal cancer imaging features will be reviewed with main emphasis on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methodology. Rectal cancer TNM based staging will be presented with demonstration of clinical cases as examples to illustrate mesorectal fat and mesorectal fascial layers involvement, as well as common pitfalls and diagnostic challenges that may occur and impact treatment strategies. Highlights on nodal involvement and extramural venous invasion will be briefly discussed. Finally, recommendations for recurrent disease evaluation will be presented. Conclusions: Attendees will increase their familiarity with MRI imaging features of rectal cancer staging, common pitfalls and diagnostic challenges.