Aspects described herein relate to configuring and selecting preamble and payload occasions for performing two-step random access procedures. Configurations on preamble occasions, payload occasions, association pattern between the occasions and synchronization signal block (SSB) beams, and the rules for selecting preamble and payload occasions for random access message transmission can be determined by the network and signaled to user equipment (UE). Based on the configurations and rules, UE can measure the link level quality and select possible preamble and payload occasions for one or more SSB beams achieving a threshold signal quality. Sets of one or more preamble occasions and one or more payload occasions can be further determined based on whether the preamble and payload occasion(s) can achieve a threshold transmission latency. The one or more preamble occasions and one or more payload occasions can be used to transmit random access messages in the two-step random access procedure.