© 2016 The Author(s)The p–y method is one of the most popular methods for the analysis and design of laterally loaded piles. The mathematical relationship it provides between the bending moment, which can be easily measured at strain gauges along the pile, and the soil resistance and lateral pile displacement, facilitates the construction of p–y curves. Numerical techniques are required to fit smooth continuous curves to the discrete bending moment data in order to improve the accuracy of subsequent differentiation and integration operations. Due to the lack of guidance on the optimum positioning of strain gauges and the reliability and accuracy of curve fitting methods, a unifying study, inclusive of small (0.61 m) and large (3.8 and 7.5 m) diameter piles in clay, was carried out using 18 strain gauge layouts and cubic spline, cubic to quintic B-spline and 3rd to 10th degree global polynomial techniques. Bending moment data was obtained using 3D finite element analysis. Through a comprehensive evaluation, the cubic and cubic B-spline methods were found to be consistently accurate in deriving p–y curves for both the small and large diameter piles.