Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatus relating to reference signal design for Pi/2-binary phase shift keying (Pi/2-BPSK) modulation with frequency domain spectral shaping (FDSS). In certain aspects, a method includes generating a set of Gold sequences each having a length and adjusting the length of each of the Gold sequences in the set of Gold sequences. The method also includes applying a phase rotation to each of the Gold sequences in the set of Gold sequences and modulating each of the Gold sequences in the set of Gold sequences by a DFT-s-OFDM with frequency domain spectral shaping (FDSS). The method further includes selecting one or more sequences from the set of modulated Gold sequences based on a parameter and transmitting the one or more sequences to a user equipment (UE) or a base station (BS).