Alternating wet and dry irrigation （AWD），as an important water-saving irrigation technique，has significant impacts on the use efficiency of water and nitrogen，yield and quality of rice.The positive or negative effect of AWD on rice is mainly determined by the degree of soil drying.In this article，the mechanisms underlying effects of AWD on the use efficiency of water and nitrogen，yield and quality of rice were reviewed from the aspects including physicochemical and biological characteristics of soil，morphological and physiological traits of rice root，agronomic and physiological characteristics aboveground.The effects of interaction between AWD and nitrogen fertilizer on the use efficiency of water and nitrogen，yield and quality of rice were briefly introduced.Some problems such as different standards for monitoring soil drying and incomplete regulatory mechanism of AWD were existed，therefore it is recommended that multiple omics techniques should be used to analyze the mechanism of AWD regulating percentage of productive tillers in rice and the mechanism of AWD and nitrogen application regulating rice quality should be studied based on the metabolism of starch，protein and fat in grains.It will provide theoretical basis for cultivating rice with high yield，high efficiency，and good quality.