Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) is a new type of fuel element meeting more safety margin of reactor design requirements. The surface coating study of zirconium alloy cladding is one major direction of ATF cladding development, which focuses on solving the reaction problem between zirconium and steam at high temperature, and features in good cost performance, feasibility in commercialization and so on. The paper focused on research progress in terms of preparation technology and certain application performance of the surface coating of zirconium alloy cladding. The preparation technology included coating method, coating thickness and coating composition. The application performance mainly included high temperature oxidation and irradiation performance. Four key issues in studying surface coating of zirconium alloys were analyzed in details, i.e., selection of coating materials and coating process, characterization of coating quality as well as the key application performance research of coating Zr cladding. The coating material should not only meet the high-temperature oxidation resistance, but also meet relevant performance requirements of reactor under normal operation; the coating process should provide adhesive and dense structure films and consider realizability of the coating process for Zr cladding tube. For special application environment of Zr cladding, the coating quality characterization focused on coating adhesion and film compactness. High-temperature oxidation, corrosion, thermal shock resistance and corrosion resistance were mainly considered in respect of key application performance of coating cladding. MAX phase and metal Cr are two promising coating materials for Zr cladding, and arc ion plating as coating process of Zr cladding has substantial development potential.