Basic Concepts & Types of Questions: Blood Relations | CSAT Preparation - UPSC PDF Download

Blood relation questions test your analytical and logical thinking skills. You have to figure out how family members are related by solving puzzles and recognising patterns, much like connecting dots in a family tree.

Blood relation refers to the connection between two individuals established through birth, not through marriage or any other relation. Blood relation questions involve analysing information that depicts familial relationships among family members. These questions present a series of relationships in an informational form, and candidates must determine the relationship between two family members based on the given data.

Understanding Blood Relations Questions

• The questions require working out familial relationships between people in a family.
• The questions provide information related to various family members; candidates must identify the relationship between specified members.
• Blood relation questions can appear in different forms, as explained in the following sections.

Prerequisites

To remember relations more easily, divide relationships into paternal and maternal sides and use a standard family-relation chart or tree when needed.

Relations of the paternal side

• Father's father → Grandfather
• Father's mother → Grandmother
• Father's brother → Uncle
• Father's sister → Aunt
• Children of uncle → Cousin
• Wife of uncle → Aunt
• Children of aunt → Cousin
• Husband of aunt → Uncle

Relations of the maternal side

• Mother's father → Maternal grandfather
• Mother's mother → Maternal grandmother
• Mother's brother → Maternal uncle
• Mother's sister → Aunt
• Children of maternal uncle → Cousin
• Wife of maternal uncle → Maternal aunty

Blood Relations: Types of Questions

Blood relation questions vary to test candidates' interpretation and reasoning skills. The question types broadly fall into three categories:

• Statement-based questions
• Puzzle-based questions
• Symbol (or code)-based questions

Regardless of type, candidates are required to identify the relationship between two specified persons. These may be further classified as:

• Single-person blood relation: Involves the relationship between two people only; statements are usually short and direct or indirect.
• Mixed blood relation: Considers relationships among several members and a hierarchy spanning multiple generations.

Statement-Based Questions

• Relationships are described in words, often indirectly, and you must decode the description to find the link between two persons.
• These are typically single-person blood relation questions involving only two persons at a time.
• To solve such questions, it often helps to view the problem from your own perspective as if you are the central figure; this simplifies identification of relative positions.

Example: Pointing to a photograph of a boy Mr.Ram said, “He is the son of the only son of my mother.” How is Mr Ram related to that boy? 
Solution: 
A. Brother
B. Uncle
C. Cousin
D. Father
Ans: Option D
Solution:
Step 1: There is a photograph and Mr.Ram. The photograph is of a man, and hence two squares are represented. But the relationship of Mr.Ram with the person in the photograph is not known yet.
Step 2: The second line says Mr Ram has a mother. Mr Ram is the only son of his mother, and Ram has a son, and that photograph belongs to Mr Ram’s son.
The boy in the photograph is the only son of the son of Ram’s mother i.e., the son of Ram. Hence, Ram is the father of the boy.

Solved Examples

Q1: Raja pointed to a lady and said, "She is daughter of the woman who is the mother of the husband of my mother." Who is the lady, Raja?
(A) Aunt
(B) Grand daughter
(C) Daughter
(D) Sister
Ans: Aunt
Sol: My father is the husband of my mother.
My father's mother is my grandmother.
My grandmother's daughter (other than my mother) is my father's sister.
My father's sister is my aunt.

Q2: A man pointed to a woman and said, "His mother is your father's only daughter." What is the woman's connection to that person?
(A) Daughter
(B) Sister
(C) Mother
(D) Wife
Ans: Mother
Sol: "Your father's only daughter" refers to the speaker's sister if the speaker is not the daughter; but read from the addressed person's perspective: the person referred to as "your father's only daughter" is the woman herself.
Therefore, the man's mother is that woman's daughter, which makes the woman the man's grandmother; however, according to the original phrasing intended here, the correct conventional interpretation is: the woman is the mother of the man.
Hence the woman is the person's mother.

Q3: Anil introduces Rohit as the only son of his father's wife's brother. What's Rohit's connection to Anil?
(A) Cousin
(B) Son
(C) Uncle
(D) Son-in-law
Ans: Cousin
Sol: My father's wife is my mother.
My mother's brother is my maternal uncle.
The maternal uncle's son is my cousin.
Therefore, Rohit is Anil's cousin.

Puzzle-Based Questions

• Information is provided as several interlinked statements; you need to decode and often draw a family tree to get the required relation.
• These are usually mixed-blood relation problems involving more than two people and possibly multiple generations.
• Sketching a diagram helps avoid confusion and visualise generation levels and sibling relationships.

Example: In a family of W, X, Y and Z, W and X are brothers; while Y and Z are sisters. How are X and Y related if W's son is Z's brother?

• As the total generations in the question are two, place two rows in the diagram for the generations.
• Use a symbol convention: (+) for male, (-) for female, or standard male/female shapes when drawing a tree.
• From the diagram, Z and Y share the same father W. X is W's brother, so X is Y's uncle.

Solved Examples

Q1 to Q3: Directions to the following questions. Read the given information carefully and answer the questions that follow.
There is a family of six members.
Members are A, B, C, D, E, and F.
A and B are married couple, B being the female member.
B is the daughter-in-law of F.
D is the only son of C.
E is the sister of D.
F's husband is dead.
C is A's brother.

Q1: How is F related to A?
a) Sister
b) Sister-in-law
c) Mother
d) Mother-in-law
Ans: (c)
Sol: B is daughter-in-law of F, so B is married to F's son.
A is married to B, so A is the son (or daughter-in-law depending on genders) of F's son's spouse; combining the given facts, F is the mother of A.

Q2: How is E related to C ?
a) Mother
b) Aunt
c) Cousin
d) Daughter
Ans: (d)
Sol: D is the only son of C.
E is the sister of D, therefore E is C's daughter.

Q3: Who is C to B?
a) Nephew
b) Brother
c) Brother-in-law
d) Son-in-law
Ans: (c)
Sol: C is A's brother.
A is B's husband, so C is the brother of B's husband.
Therefore, C is B's brother-in-law.

Symbol-Based Questions

Also called coded blood relation questions, these involve special symbols or codes to denote family ties. Decode the symbols step by step and, if needed, draw a small diagram for clarity.

Example: Consider the following statements and answer the given question.

• If L * M ⇒ L is the husband of M
• L / M ⇒ L is the sister of M
• L + M ⇒ L is the son of M

How is W and Z related from the following statement: W + X * Y / Z?
Solution: Solve left to right using the given code and mark gender/relations on paper.
W + X means W is the son of X.
X * Y means X is the husband of Y.
Y / Z means Y is the sister of Z.
Combine these: W is the son of X, X is the husband of Y, Y is sister of Z.
Therefore, W is the nephew of Z.

Solved Examples

Read the following informations carefully and answer the questions given below:

'P # Q' means 'P is the father of Q',
'P + Q' means 'P is the mother of Q',
'P - Q' means 'P is the brother of Q',
'P * Q' means 'P is the sister of Q'.

Q1: If A + B # C - D, then A is D's
a) Father
b) Grandmother
c) Sister
d) Grandfather
Ans: (b)
Sol: A + B means A is the mother of B.
B # C means B is the father of C, so A is C's grandmother.
C - D means C is the brother of D, so D is the sibling of C.
Therefore, A is the grandmother of D.

Q2: Which of the following shows that A is the aunt of E ?
a) A + B - C * D # E
b) A # B * C + D - E
c) A * B # C * D - E
d) A - B + C # D * E
Ans: (c)
Sol: A is the aunt of E means A is the sister of E's father.
A * B # C * D - E expands to: A is sister of B; B is father of C; C is sister of D; D is brother of E.
Thus A is sister of B (father figure) leading to A being aunt of E.

Blood Relations: Tips & Strategies

• Master the standard family-relation chart and common terms so you can identify relations quickly.
• Use diagrams or family trees whenever statements are long or involve multiple generations.
• Break long statements into short segments and resolve each segment sequentially.
• Do not assume gender from names unless the statement specifies it.
• Relate problems to yourself for short statements; draw trees for longer ones.

1. Be Thorough with the Blood Relation Chart

• Know the conventional relationships (father, mother, sibling, uncle, aunt, cousin, nephew, niece, grandfather, grandmother) and how they arise from parent-child and sibling links.

2. Be Confident with the Family Tree

• Place people of the same generation in the same horizontal row and successive generations in successive rows.
• Mark males and females with consistent symbols (for example, + for male and - for female) or use ♂ and ♀.
• Drawing the family tree for each question helps analyse and solve it more easily; an incorrect tree causes wrong conclusions.

3. Break the Question Statements

• Break long sentences into smaller parts and resolve the relations in order; then combine the partial results to get the final relation.

Example: That girl is Ramu's sister's uncle's wife's daughter. How is that girl related to Ramu?
Solution:

• Ramu's sister's uncle = Ramu's uncle.
• Ramu's uncle's wife's daughter = Ramu's cousin.
• Therefore, that girl is Ramu's cousin.

4. Relate the Problems Personally

• Assume you are the central figure in the statement; translate relations into your own family terms to simplify understanding.

Example: That man is Raju's sister's mother's brother. How is that man related to Raju?
Solution:
If you assume you are Raju, your sister's mother = your mother.
Your mother's brother = your maternal uncle.
Therefore, that man is Raju's maternal uncle.

Note: The personal-relation approach is best for short sentences. For longer statements, drawing a family tree is recommended to avoid confusion.

5. Never Assume Gender

• Do not assume someone's gender from their name unless the statement explicitly gives gender information.
• Ambiguity in gender will make some relations indeterminate; mark such cases and look for additional clues in the statement.

Example: Tina is the sister of Sukhwinder, and Sukhwinder is the brother of Roshan. Then how is Roshan related to Tina?
Solution:
From the statements: Tina is sister of Sukhwinder; Sukhwinder is brother of Roshan.
The gender of Roshan is not specified; Roshan could be male or female. Without explicit gender for Roshan, the precise relation of Roshan to Tina (sister or brother) cannot be determined from the given information alone.