What does it mean if a program on Freida says it has for example 5 PG1 positions and then goes to 2PG2, etc. positions. Does it mean they accept more the first year and then you compete with each other or what?
Quite a common misconception. True pyramidal programs do not exist anymore; this is a violation of the RRC regulations.
Programs which have more PGY1 than PGY2, etc. often have many prelim, both designated and non-designated, positions.
For example, my program had 4 categorical general surgery residents each year, but 19 PGY1 interns. Some of these were doing a designated year (ie, the Ortho, ENT, Urology, Neurosurg residents) and others were non-designated. There is no fight amongst the Categoricals and the Prelims, but there might be assumed some competition between the non-designated Prelims if they wanted to stay - they needed to prove themselves, and we could take a couple on each year, with the hopes of giving them a Categorical position, but there were no guarantees.