Blood Relations
About 7 min · Reasoning Ability and Problem Solving · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 455 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Blood Relations questions test your ability to decode family relationships and trace connections between individuals. The problems come in two main styles: family-tree puzzles where you build a diagram from clues, and pointing-style questions where one person describes another's relationship ("Pointing to a photo, Ram said…").
Key ideas
- Generation levels: Arrange family members in horizontal layers — grandparents at top, parents in middle, children (your generation) below, and grandchildren at bottom. This prevents mixing up aunts with cousins.
- Gender marking: Use standard symbols — male = square or +, female = circle or –. Always mark gender explicitly; many wrong answers result from assuming gender incorrectly.
- Marriage link: Represent spouses with a horizontal line or '=' sign connecting them. Children branch downward from the marriage line. A person can have only one spouse in standard problems unless remarriage is mentioned.
- Sibling identification: Siblings share the same parents and sit on the same generation level. Brother and sister are direct; brother-in-law and sister-in-law involve a marriage connection (your spouse's sibling or your sibling's spouse).
- Maternal vs. Paternal: Maternal relatives are from the mother's side; paternal from the father's side. Maternal uncle = mother's brother. Paternal uncle = father's brother. Mixing these is a common error.
Watch out for
- Confusing brother-in-law types: Students forget brother-in-law can mean spouse's brother OR sister's husband. Always check which path applies. Fix: Draw the marriage link clearly and trace both possibilities if unsure.
- Assuming gender without clues: If the problem says "child" or "sibling" without specifying male/female, don't assume. Re-read for gender hints like "his," "her," or role names (uncle = male, aunt = female). Fix: Mark gender as "unknown" and see if the question's answer choices force a conclusion.
- Misreading "only": "Only son" ≠ "only child." Only son means no other sons, but daughters may exist. Fix: Write down exactly what "only" restricts (sons, daughters, or children) before building the tree.
Quick reference
- Always draw a family tree or chart — visual diagrams prevent logical errors.
- Mark male/female and generation clearly; use symbols (□ = male, ○ = female).
- "Only son/daughter/child" strictly limits siblings — read carefully.
- Spouse's sibling = sibling-in-law; sibling's spouse = also sibling-in-law.
- Maternal = mother's side; Paternal = father's side — don't mix.
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. Pointing to a photograph, Amit said, "She is the daughter of my grandfather's only son." How is the woman in the photograph related to Amit?
2. Introducing a man, a woman said, "His wife is the only daughter of my mother." How is the woman related to the man?
3. A is the son of B. C, B's sister, has a son D and a daughter E. F is the maternal uncle of D. How is E related to F?
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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