The conjunctive normal form can be exponentially large in the worst case as well, though, see the footnote in the article. In practice that is not a problem, si

The conjunctive normal form can be exponentially large in the worst case as well, though, see the footnote in the article. In practice that is not a problem, since it suffices to find a formula in CNF that is satisfiable precisely when the original formula is satisfiable, even though it might not be equivalent.