This article presents the studies of time-domain inverse scattering for a metallic cylinder which based on the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method and the dynamic differential evolution (DDE). For this study, the FDTD is used for the analysis of the forward scattering part, while for the DDE is applied for the reconstruction of the two-dimensional metallic cylinder. For the forward scattering, the FDTD method is used to calculate the scattered E fields. Based on the scattering fields, these inverse scattering problems are transformed into optimization problem. By comparing the simulated scattered fields and the calculated scattered fields, the shape and location of the metallic cylinder are reconstructed. Numerical results demonstrate that, even when the initial guess is far away from the exact one, good reconstruction can be obtained. In addition, the effects of Gaussian noise on the reconstruction results are investigated. V C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 22:632-638, 2012.