This paper investigates the electrical behavior of total cross tied (TCT), SuDoKu (SDK) and killer-SDK (KSDK) configurations under several shading conditions. Three different types of bypass diode (BD) arrangements for these PV arrays (PVAs) have been reported and the considered different BD arrangements are without BD (WBD), non-overlapped BD (NBD) and overlapped BD (OBD). Due to the occurrence of shading situations, the investigation of excess current for various BD based PVA configurations has been carried out. In the present work, maximum prospecting values of excess current for PV modules and arrays are also reported. Moreover, comparative analysis between WBD, NBD and OBD based PVA configurations has been presented using P–V and I–V characteristics. Also, investigation has been extended in terms of reduction of excess current, power dissipation, power improvement, energy savings and earnings. The presented results may be used as a suggestion for appropriate BD interconnection for the chosen PVA configurations. Overall, it is reported in this article that the NBD based KSDK PVA configuration is superior to WBD, OBD and NBD based TCT and SDK PVA configurations. •WBD, OBD and NBD based TCT, SDK and KSDK PV array configurations are investigated.•Comparative study on NBD based KSDK PV array configuration is carried out under shading cases.•Analyzed P–V and I–V profiles, improved power, excess current, energy savings of PV arrays.•NBD based KSDK PV array has best performance compared to OBD and NBD based TCT and SDK configurations.