In recent inland shallow earthquakes, pulse-like ground motions have been observed which subsequently caused severe damage to buildings. However, the response of buildings to pulse-like ground motions has not been sufficiently characterized yet. In this study, we investigate the effect of pulse-like ground motions on the design of structures and define the maximum response of an undamped singledegree-of-freedom (SDOF) system subjected to a sinusoidal pulse as a function of natural period. In addition, design response spectra for pulse-like ground motions are proposed.