According to current situation of soil mechanics and foundation engineering curriculum in universities, the ‘3333’ teaching design was proposed. The reorganization of teaching content was carried out based on the engineering problems and the original knowledge system was broken. Six modules with 20 questions of teaching content system were established. In order to improve the students' learning interest and learning initiative, the teaching methods such as problem teaching, engineering case teaching, situation teaching and personalized teaching were combined and adopted. Finally, some suggestions for improving the soil mechanics and foundation engineering course construction were put forward.