This research investigates the design of a compact multiband bandpass filter (MBPF) leveraging coupling resonators to achieve enhanced performance. By employing a universal coupled topology, the proposed method facilitates the development of filters with multiple passbands, incorporating a significant number of in-band poles and out-of-band transmission zeros (TZs). The role of coupling matrices is pivotal in constructing MBPFs, which utilize the filtering responses of cascaded trisection (CT) bandpass filters. Initially, a theoretical analysis of a quad-band MBPF is conducted, followed by the application of the coupling matrix technique to dual-band and tri-band CT bandpass filters, featuring TZs located in the upper region of each passband. The practical implementation of the proposed dual-band and tri-band filters is realized through small planar multi-coupled line architectures. Experimental results demonstrate insertion losses (ILs) better than 2.7 dB and return losses (RLs) exceeding 24.7 dB across all passbands, validating the effectiveness of the proposed design methodology.