IBPS Clerk · Bite-size lessons
Direction and Distance
About 7 min · Reasoning Ability · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 478 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
These problems test your ability to visualize movement on a compass and calculate the final position or shortest distance between two points. Unlike complex puzzles, direction questions reward careful tracking rather than deep logic—making them high-accuracy picks if you master the basics.
Key ideas
- Eight Cardinal and Ordinal Directions: North, South, East, West are the four main directions. Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest lie at 45° between them. Always orient your diagram with North at the top.
- Clockwise vs Anti-clockwise Turns: Turning right means moving clockwise (N→E→S→W→N). Turning left means moving anti-clockwise (N→W→S→E→N). A 90° right turn from East points you South.
- Opposite Directions: North↔South, East↔West, Northeast↔Southwest, Northwest↔Southeast. If someone faces North and turns 180°, they face South.
- Shadow-based Direction: Morning sun rises in East, so shadows fall West. Evening sun sets in West, so shadows fall East. At noon, shadows are minimal (directly under or towards North in Northern Hemisphere).
- Displacement vs Total Distance: Total distance is the sum of all path lengths. Displacement (shortest distance) is the straight line from start to end point.
Watch out for
- Confusing left/right with East/West: Left and right depend on which direction you're currently facing. If facing South, your left is East, not West. → Always determine current facing direction before applying the turn.
- Forgetting to net out movements: Students add all distances instead of canceling opposite movements. Walking 10 km East then 4 km West means net 6 km East, not 14 km. → Separate movements into North-South and East-West components, then find net for each.
- Applying Pythagoras when path isn't a right triangle: The formula works only when final displacement forms a right angle. If you end up directly North of start, distance is simply the net North movement. → Check if both x and y components are non-zero before using √(x² + y²).
Quick reference
- North at top; clockwise order: N → E → S → W
- Right turn = clockwise; Left turn = anti-clockwise
- Shortest distance = √(horizontal² + vertical²)
- Morning shadow → West; Evening shadow → East
- Net movement = add same-direction, subtract opposite-direction distances
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. A person walks 5 m towards North from point A to reach point B. Then he turns left and walks 12 m to reach point C. What is the shortest distance between point A and point C?
2. Ravi starts from his home and walks 8 m towards South. He then turns right and walks 6 m, then turns right again and walks 14 m. In which direction is he now from his starting point?
3. Point Q is 9 m to the West of point P. Point R is 12 m to the North of point Q. Point S is 9 m to the East of point R. What is the shortest distance between point P and point S?
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 17 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.
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