This study explores how students of architecture characterize design. It focuses on the transformation of students’ conception of design as they move from first year to fourth year in their undergraduate education. The study employs surveys and in-depth interviews with selected groups of students from all four levels among the students of architecture in Izmir Institute of Technology and Dokuz Eylül University. It was found that characterization of design as problem solving is the dominant preference among the students of architecture because design studio pedagogy imposes a conception of a more linear design process which corresponds to design as problem solving. Nevertheless, the students are aware that design process is not as linear as it is taught in the studio. It can be said that the strategic approaches the students developed are caused by this contradiction between the nature of design process and the current applied pedagogy.