Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for flexible scheduling of reference signals and data in an uplink pilot time slot (UpPTS) in a wireless network. A method of wireless communication by a base station (BS) is provided. The method generally includes scheduling a first one or more symbols of a UpPTS for one or more user equipments (UEs) to transmit data and a second one more symbols of the UpPTS for one or more UEs to transmit one or more sounding reference signals (SRSs). The BS receives the data in the first one or more symbols and the one or more SRSs in the second one or more symbols. Based on the scheduling received from the BS, the UE determines the symbols of the UpPTS for transmission of SRSs and data.