Steps to Solve Expression using K-map

1. Select the K-map according to the number of variables.
2. Identify minterms or maxterms as given in the problem.
3. For SOP put 1’s in blocks of K-map respective to the minterms (0’s elsewhere).
4. For POS put 0’s in blocks of K-map respective to the max terms (1’s elsewhere).
5. Make rectangular groups containing total terms in power of two like 2,4,8 ..(except 1) and try to cover as many elements as you can in one group.
6. From the groups made in step 5 find the product terms and sum them up for SOP form.

In many digital circuits and practical problems, we need to find expressions with minimum variables. We can minimize Boolean expressions of 3, 4 variables very easily using K-map without using any Boolean algebra theorems.

K-map can take two forms:

1. Sum of product (SOP)
2. Product of Sum (POS)

According to the need of problem. K-map is a table-like representation, but it gives more information than the TABLE. We fill a grid of the K-map with 0’s and 1’s then solve it by making groups.