Direction Sense
About 7 min · Logical Reasoning · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 519 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Direction Sense is a staple topic in the Logical Reasoning section of SOF NSO and other competitive exams. These problems test your ability to visualize movement on a compass and calculate the shortest path between points or determine the final direction of a person after a series of turns. Mastering this topic demands practice with compass directions (North, South, East, West and their intermediates), understanding of relative turns (left/right), and application of the Pythagorean theorem for distance calculations.
Key ideas
- Four cardinal directions: North (N), South (S), East (E), West (W). North is conventionally at the top of the page; South opposite it; East to the right; West to the left.
- Intermediate directions: North-East (NE), South-East (SE), South-West (SW), North-West (NW). These lie exactly between the cardinal directions at 45° intervals.
- Opposite directions: North ↔ South, East ↔ West. Turning 180° from any direction gives the opposite direction.
- Right and left turns: If you face North and turn right 90°, you face East. If you turn left 90°, you face West. Always visualize yourself facing the current direction before turning.
- Clockwise order of directions: N → E → S → W → N (four 90° clockwise turns complete a circle). Anti-clockwise is the reverse: N → W → S → E → N.
Watch out for
- Confusing left and right: Students often forget to imagine themselves facing the current direction before turning. Fix: Always mentally rotate yourself or draw an arrow showing your facing direction before applying a left/right turn.
- Adding total distance instead of displacement: The question asks for shortest distance, but students sum all movements (8 + 6 + 8 = 22 km in Example 2). Fix: Calculate net North-South and net East-West displacement, then apply Pythagoras.
- Forgetting to account for opposite movements: Moving 10 m North then 10 m South cancels out to 0 net movement. Fix: Use signed addition — treat North/East as +, South/West as −.
Quick reference
- Clockwise from North: N → NE (45°) → E (90°) → SE (135°) → S (180°) → SW (225°) → W (270°) → NW (315°) → N (360°).
- Right turn = clockwise, left turn = anti-clockwise.
- Net displacement = vector sum of all individual moves (use +/− for opposite directions).
- Shortest distance = √(NS displacement² + EW displacement²).
- Final direction = location of end point relative to start (use compass directions).
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. Rahul walks 5 km towards North from his home, then turns left and walks 3 km. He then turns left again and walks 5 km. In which direction is he now from his starting point?
2. A man starts walking from point P and walks 40 m towards South. He then turns right and walks 30 m, then turns right again and walks 70 m. Finally, he turns right and walks 30 m. What is the shortest distance between his current position and point P?
3. Ankit walks 5 km towards North, then turns right and walks 3 km. He then turns right again and walks 5 km. In which direction is he now from his starting point?
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 21 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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