Blood Relations Questions for SSC CGL

Core Family Relationships to Memorise

Every blood relation question is built on a fixed set of family relationships. You must know these by heart without hesitation. Think of family in three layers: grandparent generation (top), parent generation (middle), your own generation (bottom). Relationships only make sense when you place people correctly in these layers.

• Maternal = mother's side, Paternal = father's side — always note this qualifier first.
• Sibling's child = Nephew (boy) or Niece (girl).
• Parent's sibling = Uncle (male) or Aunt (female).
• Parent's sibling's child = Cousin (same generation as you).
• Spouse's mother = Mother-in-law; Spouse's brother = Brother-in-law.
• Son's wife = Daughter-in-law; Daughter's husband = Son-in-law.

Drawing the Family Tree — The Only Method That Works

Never solve blood relation questions in your head. Always draw a quick tree on rough paper. Use a standard notation: boxes or circles for persons, horizontal line for couple (husband-wife), vertical line going down for children, horizontal line between siblings at the same level. Mark M or F (Male/Female) next to each person. This visual map prevents errors and saves time on multi-step chains.

• Top row: grandparents. Middle row: parents and their siblings. Bottom row: self, siblings, cousins.
• Use arrows to show the chain: A is father of B means draw A one level above B with a downward line.
• Always assign gender first before finding the relationship — many wrong answers come from assuming gender.
• For coded puzzles (A + B means A is father of B), write the legend beside the tree before solving.
• In conversation-type questions, identify the anchor person (the one asking or being described) first.
• Cross-check: count generation gap. Same generation = sibling or cousin. One above = parent or uncle/aunt. Two above = grandparent.

Coded Blood Relation Puzzles

SSC CGL frequently gives coded relation questions where symbols or operations represent relationships. For example: A @ B means A is mother of B, A # B means A is brother of B. You are given an expression like A @ B # C and asked: how is A related to C? The trick is to decode each symbol one by one, draw the mini tree as you go, and never skip steps.

• Write the legend clearly on your scratch paper before touching the expression.
• Decode left to right, building the tree step by step.
• If gender is ambiguous in the code, mark it as unknown and see if the answer choices resolve it.
• Common trap: the code says X is sibling of Y, but does not tell gender — the answer may be brother OR sister, so look for options like cannot be determined.
• Some codes use +, -, x, divide symbols — treat them purely as relationship labels, ignore the math meaning.

Pointing or Conversation Based Questions

In these questions, a person points to someone in a photo or says a sentence like: Pointing to a girl, Ravi said, She is the daughter of the only son of my grandfather. You must trace the chain from the described person back to the subject. These look complicated but collapse quickly with a tree. Start from the anchor (Ravi) and build outward following each clue word.

• Key phrase only son means exactly one son — no ambiguity, use it to anchor the generation.
• Only child or only son/daughter eliminates sibling possibilities — a powerful clue.
• Pointing to a man/woman gives you gender of the subject directly.
• Work backwards from the end of the sentence to the beginning for clarity.
• Common chain: grandfather's only son = father, father's daughter = sister. So the girl is Ravi's sister.

• Assuming gender from names — Indian names can be unisex (e.g., Kiran, Suman). Always confirm gender from the statement, not the name.
• Confusing maternal and paternal sides — maternal uncle (mama) and paternal uncle (chacha) are both uncles in English but come from different sides. Ignore the Hindi label, focus on the English descriptor given.
• Solving multi-step chains mentally without drawing — leads to losing track after 3+ steps. Always sketch.
• In coded questions, mixing up who is the subject and who is the object — A is father of B is NOT the same as B is father of A. Direction matters.
• Forgetting that in-laws are NOT blood relations — some questions ask specifically about blood relations and including in-laws gives a wrong answer.

• GPSM Tree Layers — Grandparents (top), Parents (middle), Self (bottom), Married-ins (side branches). Any person in a question fits one of these four slots.
• MF First Rule — Mark Male/Female before you trace any relationship. Gender decides everything (nephew vs niece, uncle vs aunt, brother vs sister).
• Chain shortcut rhyme: UP one = parent or aunt/uncle, UP two = grandparent, SAME level = sibling or cousin, DOWN one = child or nephew/niece.
• For coded puzzles remember: LEGEND first, TREE next, ANSWER last — never skip the legend step no matter how simple it looks.

• SSC CGL Tier 1 typically has 1 to 3 blood relation questions. They are low-difficulty if you draw the tree — target 100 percent accuracy here, do not guess.
• Recent paper trend: coded blood relation questions (symbol-based) are more common than simple narrative ones. Practice decoding at least 20 coded sets before the exam.
• Time target: each blood relation question should take 45 to 75 seconds maximum. If a question crosses 90 seconds, mark and move on — return later.
• Conversation or pointing type questions often have a long sentence with one tricky word like only or except. Underline that word before solving.
• When answer options include cannot be determined, that is usually correct when gender is not specified anywhere in the question. Do not force an answer.