In this paper we look at the application of reliability-based design to various types of problems in a geotechnical design office. For the selected design examples, comparisons are presented between the results from reliability analyses and those from traditional design methods such as working stress design and limit states design using design approach DA1-2. In addition, we compare the reliability of eccentrically loaded footings designed according to DA2 and DA2*. Our conclusion is that reliability-based design can readily be applied to problems with closed form solutions provided sufficient data is available to adequately characterise the input parameters. Eccentrically loaded footings designed according to DA2* are less reliable than those designed using design approach DA2 from EN1997-1. Limit states design using design approach DA1-2 from EN1997-1 achieves fairly uniform levels of reliability for different types of structures and is suitable for routine design.