This paper aims to characterize the seismic behavior of concrete-faced rock-fill dams. A series of dynamic centrifuge tests were carried out. The experimental results demonstrate that the stress evolution in the face slab is related to the pattern of energy buildup and that the overall stress evolution pattern is highly affected by pre-shaking. For the dams which have not experienced a relatively strong earthquake, compressive and tensile stress increments due to shaking are developed on the outer and inner faces, respectively. However, for the dams which have experienced a relatively strong earthquake, the inner face exhibits an overall tensile stress increment with time while the stress on the outer face only fluctuate around zero with minor overall variation. As for the failure mode under an extremely strong earthquake, slight surface sliding initially occurs, and then rock-fill particles move towards downstream direction, leading to deep sliding and significant dam deformation. •Dynamic centrifuge modelling on concrete-faced rock-fill dams.•Characterization of the stress evolution in the face slab.•Failure mode and damage evolution under an extremely strong earthquake.•Determination of the effect of pre-shaking on the seismic response.