Abstract: Fragment-based drug design (FBDD) is a strategy that combines the fragments screening library and optimizes the fragments with structure-based drug design to obtain lead compounds. There are three basic steps for FBDD. First, design and establish a fragment library; second, use biophysical methods to screen active fragments comprehensively; finally, optimize the fragment assembly molecules to obtain drug-like lead compounds or candidates using structure-based drug design methods such as fragment linking, growth, and merging. In this article, we reviewed the basic principles and applications of FBDD and detailed the three approved anticancer drugs (vemurafenib, venetoclax and erdafitinib) and KRAS^G12C inhibitor AMG510 to illustrate FBDD strategy.