Blood Relations Questions for IBPS RRB CLERK

Core Family Relationships You Must Know

Before solving any question, you need a crystal-clear mental map of standard family terms. Indian family structures are tested — including paternal and maternal sides. Always fix gender first, then relationship. A wrong gender assumption kills the entire chain.

• Parents: Father and Mother. Grandparents: Paternal (Father's parents) and Maternal (Mother's parents).
• Siblings: Brother (male) and Sister (female). Spouse: Husband (male) and Wife (female).
• Uncle: Father's or Mother's brother. Aunt: Father's or Mother's sister.
• Nephew: Brother's or Sister's son. Niece: Brother's or Sister's daughter.
• Cousin: Uncle's or Aunt's child. In-laws: Spouse's relatives (Mother-in-law, Father-in-law, etc.).
• Son-in-law: Daughter's husband. Daughter-in-law: Son's wife. Brother-in-law: Spouse's brother or Sister's husband.

How to Draw the Family Tree

The golden rule: ALWAYS draw the tree on your rough sheet. Never solve blood relation questions in your head for chains longer than two steps. Use simple symbols consistently. A square for male, a circle for female, a horizontal line for marriage, and a vertical or diagonal line for parent-child. Read the entire question once, then start drawing.

• Square = Male, Circle = Female, ? = Unknown gender — assign only when confirmed.
• Horizontal line between two shapes = Married couple.
• Vertical line going down = Child of that couple.
• Read all clues first, then draw — do not draw clue by clue or you may erase many times.
• Label each node with the name or letter given in the question.
• Finally, trace the path from Person A to Person B to find the relationship.

Coded Blood Relations

A very popular IBPS RRB format. Here, operators or symbols replace relationship words. For example, A + B means A is the father of B, A - B means A is the mother of B, and so on. You are given a coding key and a statement like P + Q - R x S and asked what R is to P. Always decode symbol by symbol, left to right, and draw as you go.

• Write the coding key on your rough sheet before starting.
• Decode each symbol one at a time and draw the link immediately.
• Never skip a symbol — one missed link gives a completely wrong answer.
• Gender is usually embedded in the symbol meaning — extract it carefully.
• Common symbols used: +, -, x, divide sign, @, %, dollar sign — mapping changes every exam so read carefully.

Pointing or Conversation Based Questions

These are statement-type questions: someone points to a photo and says something like, He is the only son of my mother's husband's father. Find how the person in the photo is related to the speaker. These look scary but are simple if you anchor on the speaker and walk backwards step by step.

• Start from the speaker and trace each relationship word one at a time.
• My mother's husband = the speaker's father (in most normal family contexts).
• Watch for words like only son, only child — they eliminate sibling possibilities.
• The final person you land on is the answer. Then state how THAT person relates to the speaker.
• Common traps: the speaker may be female but the sentence uses he — re-read before concluding.
• If data is insufficient (gender unclear), the answer is Cannot be determined — a valid option.

Puzzle-Based Blood Relations

In IBPS RRB, blood relation questions are sometimes mixed into seating arrangement or tabular puzzles. A family of 6 to 8 members with conditions about gender, generation, and profession is given. These carry higher marks and moderate difficulty. Treat them like a normal puzzle but add a family tree layer alongside your grid.

• Identify generations first — grandparents, parents, children — to anchor the tree.
• Gender clues are golden — use them early to eliminate wrong branches.
• Count total members and cross-check — if 4 members are found and 6 are expected, you are missing clues.
• Attempt these after solo blood relation questions in the exam to save time.
• In puzzle sets, typically 3 to 5 questions come from one family tree — worth the 2-3 minutes to draw carefully.

• Assuming gender without confirmation — the biggest trap. A name like Kiran or Ravi may be used for either gender in tricky questions. Never assume; wait for a clue.
• In coded blood relations, reading symbols right to left instead of left to right — always decode in the direction the statement is written.
• Confusing nephew and niece, or maternal and paternal uncle — revise these terms before exam day with a fixed table.
• Not drawing the tree and trying to solve mentally — this works only for 1-step questions. For 3-plus steps, you will get confused and waste time.
• Missing the Cannot be determined option — when gender or relationship is truly ambiguous, that IS the answer. Do not force a conclusion.

• TREE rule: Trace Relationships on paper, Extract gender first, Eliminate wrong paths, End by naming the final person. Never skip this flow.
• MAP trick for in-laws: Mother-in-law is spouse's Mother, Father-in-law is spouse's Father, Brother-in-law is spouse's Brother or your Sister's Husband. Think MAP: Mother-father-And sibling of partner.
• For coded relations, write the code key as a small table: Symbol on left, Meaning on right. Treat it like a dictionary you keep open while solving.
• FOGM for generations: Friends (same gen), Older (parent gen), Grandolder (grandparent gen), Minor (child gen). Visualise a 4-floor building — each floor is one generation.

• IBPS RRB Office Assistant papers typically include 2 to 4 standalone blood relation questions plus sometimes 1 puzzle set. Solo questions are easy and should be solved in under 45 seconds each.
• Coded blood relation questions appear almost every year in IBPS RRB. Practice at least 30 sets of coded relations before the exam — familiarity with decoding speed is everything.
• Conversation-based questions (pointing at a photo format) are common in Prelims. The answer choices often include Cannot be determined — do not dismiss it.
• In recent papers, family puzzle sets have become more common in Mains than Prelims. For Prelims, focus on 1 to 3 step direct and coded questions.
• Time budget: Spend max 1 minute on solo blood relation questions. If a puzzle set is given, spend 3 to 4 minutes on the full set and attempt all questions from it together.