Blood Relations
🔒 Log in to trackOne of the highest-yield reasoning topics: family-tree puzzles, pointing-at-photograph statements and symbol-coded chains, all solvable by drawing a small tree with parent-to-child arrows. Marks are lost to direction reversals and assumed genders, never to difficulty. A fixed decoding habit — inside-out for pointing questions, pairwise for coded strings, top-down for statement lists — makes nearly every question here a 30-45 second correct answer.
One page per subtopic: detailed notes, every question type, formulas, tricks and practice sets.
Every formula on one printable page, grouped by subtopic.
4 exam-level questions worked step by step.
58 questions — untimed practice or a timed test with analysis.
Track record in the exam
Questions per shift in recent SSC CGL papers.
Test difficulty mix (58 questions)
Question patterns exams keep repeating
Taken from previous-year papers. If a pattern is marked "very common", expect to see it in your exam.
Mixed family statements
very commonSeveral shuffled sentences describe one family, and you are asked 'How is X related to Y?'.
Draw a small tree with one arrow per sentence.
Read the relation from the tree.
Anil is Sunil's brother. Sunil is Mohan's father. Ritu is Kavita's daughter. Mohan is Ritu's brother. How is Kavita related to Anil?
Mohan and Ritu are brother and sister
So Sunil is also Ritu's father, and Kavita is her mother
Kavita is Sunil's wife, and Sunil is Anil's brother
Answer: Sister-in-law
Pointing to a photograph
very commonSomeone points to a person and says 'He is the son of my mother's mother's only child'.
Replace 'my' with the speaker.
Solve the phrase from the inside out, one step at a time.
Pointing to a man, Sunita said, "He is the only son of my mother's mother's only child." How is the man related to Sunita?
Mother's mother's only child = Sunita's mother
Her only son = Sunita's brother
Answer: Brother
Symbol-coded relations
commonSymbols like + and ÷ stand for relations, and a coded line like A + B ÷ C is given.
Write each symbol as a plain sentence.
Join the sentences and read the relation.
'P + Q' means P is the son of Q. 'P ÷ Q' means P is the wife of Q. In 'A + B ÷ C', how is A related to C?
A + B: A is the son of B
B ÷ C: B is the wife of C
So A is the son of C's wife
Answer: Son
Chain of relations
commonTwo or three short links in a row, like 'Mohan is Rekha's father. Ramesh is Mohan's father.'
Draw one arrow for each link.
Count the arrows: 1 = parent, 2 = grandparent, 3 = great-grandparent.
Mohan is Rekha's father. Ramesh is Mohan's father. How is Ramesh related to Rekha?
Rekha → her father Mohan (1 step up)
Mohan → his father Ramesh (2 steps up)
Two steps up and male
Answer: Grandfather
Counting males or females
commonA full family is described, then 'How many males (or females) are there?'.
Draw the tree and mark each person M or F only when a word tells you.
Count the marks.
Mr Dinesh and Mrs Gauri have a son Ashok. Ashok's wife Nutan has a son Pankaj and a daughter Seema. Pankaj's wife is Usha. Their son is Tinku. How many males are there?
Mr Dinesh is a male
Ashok is a son, so male. Pankaj is a son, so male
Tinku is a son, so male
Males: Dinesh, Ashok, Pankaj, Tinku = 4
In-law relations
commonWords like 'wife of my son' or 'brother of my wife' appear.
Spouse's parent = father/mother-in-law. Spouse's brother/sister = brother/sister-in-law.
Child's spouse = son/daughter-in-law.
Rita's son is Amit. Amit's wife is Sneha. How is Sneha related to Rita?
Amit is Rita's son
Sneha is Amit's wife
So Sneha is the wife of Rita's son
Answer: Daughter-in-law
Direction and gender traps
very commonShort statements with 'How is A related to B?' where the gender is not given.
Start from the person named after 'related to'.
If the gender is not given, do not guess.
A and B are siblings. C is the mother of A and B. How is B related to C?
C is the mother of both A and B
So B is C's child
B could be a son or a daughter, and it is not stated
Answer: Cannot be determined (son or daughter)
Build the coded expression
occasionalYou must pick the code string that means a given relation, like 'M is the maternal uncle of K'.
Break the relation into simple sentences.
Match each sentence with a symbol.
'P + Q' means P is the brother of Q. 'P − Q' means P is the mother of Q. Which expression means 'M is the maternal uncle of K'?
Maternal uncle = mother's brother
So M is the brother of K's mother, say L
M + L: M is the brother of L. L − K: L is the mother of K
Answer: M + L − K