The reinforced soil retaining walls have become very common because of their versatility as compared to the conventional concrete retaining walls. Although these walls are in existence for about 40 years, their design is based on many conservative assumptions. In the absence of much prior experience, these empirical procedures were developed with sufficiently large factors of safety. A rational understanding of the behaviour of these walls will lead to better designs and more reliability. In this regard, this paper first highlights the assumptions made in the current design procedures of reinforced soil retaining walls. A 6 m high retaining wall is designed using the current design procedures to determine the length and vertical spacing of reinforcement layers. The behaviour of such wall is analysed using the finite element method to assess the validity of the assumptions made in the design of these walls. The finite element analyses have been performed using a program developed by the authors. The elastic-plastic nature of the soil and the limited strength of the reinforcement materials are simulated during the analyses. The results from these analyses are discussed in the light of many assumptions made during the design of these walls. © 2018 ISRM International Symposium 2000, IS 2000. All rights reserved.