Blood relation questions describe a network of family connections in words, then ask you to identify the relationship between two specific people. The entire challenge is translation — converting English sentences into a visual family tree, then reading the answer off that tree.
Think of it like a road map. If someone tells you "Go north from Delhi to reach Chandigarh, then go north again to reach Amritsar," you do not calculate the Delhi-to-Amritsar distance in your head using words. You draw the route. Blood relations work the same way. The words are directions; your diagram is the map.
The analogy that clicks for most students: imagine you are at a family wedding — शादी — where you do not know most relatives. Someone tells you chain-by-chain how each person is related to one guest you already know. You build a mental picture. That mental picture is your family tree, and blood relation questions are just that wedding scenario compressed into three or four sentences.
Three question types appear on IBPS RRB:
One critical discipline: gender assignment. Words like "brother", "son", "father", "husband", "uncle", "nephew" establish that a person is male. Words like "sister", "daughter", "mother", "wife", "aunt", "niece" establish female. When a person is referred to only by a letter (P, Q, R), their gender is unknown until a gender-fixing word appears. Track this carefully — the entire answer can hinge on whether P is male or female.
Stop trying to solve blood relation questions in your head using words. It does not scale beyond two steps. Here is the systematic method:
Step 1 — Anchor the tree with the first person mentioned. Write that person's name or letter near the top-center of your rough work. Assign gender if the sentence gives one.
Step 2 — Add each new person relative to someone already on the tree. Draw a connecting line and label the relationship. Use consistent symbols:
Step 3 — Resolve gender as you go. If a new clue fixes the gender of someone already drawn, update your tree immediately. Do not wait.
Step 4 — Read the answer directly off the tree. Count the generational gap between the two target people and note the gender of the person you are describing.
Understanding where someone sits generationally is half the battle.
| Relationship | Generation from reference person | |---|---| | Grandparent | +2 | | Parent / Uncle / Aunt | +1 | | Self / Sibling / Cousin | 0 | | Child / Nephew / Niece | -1 | | Grandchild | -2 |
When two people are same generation but from different family branches (their parents are siblings), the answer is almost always cousin.
When someone is one generation above from a different branch, the answer is uncle (male) or aunt (female).
When someone is one generation below from a different branch, the answer is nephew (male) or niece (female).
These questions follow a predictable pattern: "Looking at a photograph, X said, 'His/Her [relation phrase] is my [relation phrase].'"
The solving approach:
Look — "His mother's only daughter is my mother" sounds complex, but break it down:
The pattern in photo questions is almost always one of: son, daughter, brother, sister, nephew, niece. Exotic answers rarely appear. If your derivation gives you "grandfather" for a photo question, re-check.
Some questions give you coded relationships like: "A @ B means A is the mother of B." These are just the same tree problems with an extra decoding step at the start. Decode the symbols first, build the tree second, read the answer third. Do not mix the decoding and tree-building steps — it creates errors.
These chains appear repeatedly in IBPS RRB. Recognise them on sight:
The last point is a trap many students fall into. "My father's son" in a photo question typically means the brother of the speaker, not the speaker herself — because the person in the photo is third-party, so the reference chain leads to a sibling.
Assign a generation number to every person as you add them to the tree. Same generation (0 gap) + different branch = cousin. One generation gap + different branch = uncle/aunt or nephew/niece. Two generation gap = grand-uncle or grandchild. Once you number everyone, the answer category is instant — you only decide gender separately. Standard method (re-reading clues): 40s. Generational numbering: 15s to categorise the answer.
In photograph questions, when you see "my father's son" — pause. If the question says "only son" or context makes clear there are no siblings, it means the speaker themselves. Otherwise, it means a brother (or the speaker, if male). The moment you spot "father's son", write "brother OR self" and let the next clause decide. This single pause prevents the most common error in photo questions. Without this: 2-3 re-reads needed (60s). With this habit: resolved in 5s.
When two people share the same parent(s) in your tree, they are siblings — regardless of how many clues it took to establish that. In the PYQ where M is brother of N, N is sister of O — all three are siblings because the sibling chain connects them. Now P is the father of M, so P is father of all three. Q is the mother of O, so Q is the mother of all three. P and Q are parents of the same set of children, meaning they are husband and wife. The shortcut: once you establish a sibling group, every parental clue about ANY member of that group applies to ALL members. Saves re-deriving for each sibling (cuts a 5-step derivation to 2 steps).
Before writing your final answer, run a two-second gender check: (a) Is the target person confirmed male or female? (b) Does the answer option match that gender? Uncle vs aunt, nephew vs niece, brother vs sister — these pairs differ only in gender. If you have not confirmed gender, you are guessing 50-50 on the last step. Fix: scan every clue that mentions the target person's name/letter for a gender-revealing word. If none exists, check whether any answer option requires a specific gender — if all remaining options are, say, "uncle" and "father" (both male), gender may not matter. This check costs 3s and blocks the most frustrating careless error.
Any time two people's parents are described as siblings, the answer is cousin — full stop. You do not need to trace further. The moment you draw: "P's parent and Q's parent are siblings", write "P and Q are cousins" and move on. This collapses what looks like a 6-step chain into a 1-line conclusion. Standard tracing: 50s. Pattern recognition: 8s.
When you see a blood relation question in the exam hall, run this decision sequence:
Is there a photograph / pointing statement? — Yes: Decode from the innermost phrase outward. The last person you reach is in the photo. Then describe that person relative to the speaker. — No: Proceed below.
How many people are there? — 2-4 people: Draw a quick linear chain. One minute or less. — 5-6 people: Draw a full family tree. Budget 90 seconds.
Are any letters gender-unassigned? — Scan every clue for gender-fixing words before finalising the tree.
After drawing the tree:
If your answer is not among the options, re-check the gender assignments first — that is the most common source of error. Do not re-draw the entire tree unless the gender re-check does not resolve the mismatch.
Why this question: The simplest generation-counting chain. If you cannot solve this in under 30 seconds, your tree-drawing is not yet automatic.
Solving path: Draw: C → A (C is father of A) → B (A is mother of B, so B is A's child, one generation below A, two below C). D is B's brother, so D is also two generations below C. C is the grandfather of both B and D. Answer: Grandfather.
Why this question: Classic sibling-detection shortcut. Three people connected by sibling relations collapse into one group, making the parental clues powerful.
Solving path: M-N-O are all siblings (M brother of N, N sister of O → connected sibling chain). P is father of M → P is father of all three. Q is mother of O → Q is mother of all three. P and Q are parents of the same children → they are husband and wife. Answer: Husband.
Why this question: The photo-statement type. Tests whether you can work inward-to-outward through a chain.
Solving path: "My father's son" — Aditi is female (the question names her as a woman), so her father's son is her brother. "His mother is the wife of [her brother]" — the person in the photo is male ("his"), and his mother is married to Aditi's brother. If Aditi's brother is this person's father, then this person is Aditi's brother's son, i.e., Aditi's nephew. But the question says "his mother is the wife" — meaning the photo person's mother is Aditi's brother's wife. Aditi's brother's wife's son = Aditi's brother's son = Aditi's nephew. However, the simpler reading used in the official explanation: "father's son" can mean Aditi herself if she is the only child, or — in photo questions where the referred person is third-party — it means her brother. Either way the photo person's mother is Aditi, making the photo person Aditi's son. Answer: Her son.
Why this question: Multi-member family puzzle. Tests full tree construction under time pressure.
Solving path: P-Q are married. R is P's daughter. T is R's daughter (so T is P and Q's granddaughter). U is Q's son (so U is also P and Q's child, at the same generational level as R). U and R are siblings (both children of P and Q). T is R's daughter. U is R's sibling — so U is T's uncle. Answer: Uncle.
Why this question: Extended chain with "grand uncle" — a less common answer that requires confident generation-counting.
Solving path: K is M's brother. M is N's sister. So K, M, N are all siblings. N is P's husband → N and P are married. O is P's son → O is also N's son. S is O's daughter → S is N and P's granddaughter. K is N's brother (same generation as N). S is N's granddaughter (two generations below N). K is two generations above S but from a sibling branch — that is grand uncle. Answer: Grand uncle.
Why this question: Photo-statement with "niece" as answer — tests inward-to-outward decoding precisely.
Solving path: "His mother's only daughter" — his mother has only one daughter, so this is the man's sister. "Is my mother" — the speaker's mother is the man's sister. The speaker is the daughter of the man's sister. A man's sister's daughter is his niece. Answer: Niece.
Assuming "father's son" always means "myself". It means yourself only if "only son" is specified. Otherwise treat it as a brother until context resolves it. This single assumption derails photo-statement questions most often.
Ignoring gender when two options differ only by gender. Uncle vs aunt, nephew vs niece — half the marks lost in blood relations come from picking the wrong gender after correctly identifying the generation and branch. Always run the gender-lock check before writing your answer.
Treating sibling chains as unconnected. If A is the brother of B and B is the sister of C, all three are siblings. Do not treat A-B and B-C as separate pairs when applying parental clues.
Not drawing the tree for 5+ member questions. Attempting a six-member family puzzle mentally is how you waste two minutes and still get it wrong. The tree takes 20-30 seconds to draw and makes the answer visible in another 10 seconds. Draw it every time.
Confusing "mother's husband" with "father". In standard questions they mean the same person. But do not reflexively write "father" — in some edge-case questions a second marriage changes this. Read carefully before collapsing "mother's husband" to "father".
Not reassigning relationships when a new gender clue appears. You draw P as male, then a later clue says "P's daughter". Now P is female. If you do not update your tree immediately, every subsequent deduction based on P's gender is wrong. Fix gender the moment a new clue establishes it, not at the end.