Blood Relations

Blood Relations

🟢 Lite — Quick Review (1h–1d)

Rapid summary for last-minute revision before your exam.

Blood Relations questions test your understanding of family relationships. In SSC CGL Tier 1, 1-2 questions appear from this topic. The key is to carefully decode relationship words and build a family tree diagram.

Essential Relationship Terms:

Term	Meaning
Father/Mother	Parents
Son/Daughter	Children
Brother/Sister	Siblings
Grandfather/Grandmother	Parents of parents
Uncle/Aunt	Sibling of parent
Nephew/Niece	Child of sibling
Cousin	Child of uncle/aunt
Husband/Wife	Spouses
Father-in-law/Mother-in-law	Spouse’s parents

⚡ SSC CGL Exam Tips:

• “Maternal” = mother’s side; “Paternal” = father’s side
• “Only” narrows the relationship (only son = no other sons)
• “A is B’s brother” — unless stated otherwise, they’re siblings sharing both parents
• Draw a family tree diagram for complex relations
• Read the statement from the speaker’s point of view, then trace each link one step at a time

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🟡 Standard — Regular Study (2d–2mo)

Standard content for students with a few days to months.

Understanding Blood Relations with Examples

Example 1: Direct Relationship Pointing to a man, a woman said, “His mother is the only daughter of my mother.” How is the woman related to the man?

Solution:

• “Only daughter of my mother” refers to the woman herself, since she is the only daughter.
• Therefore the woman is the man’s mother.

Answer: Mother ✓

Example 2: Generation Gap A is B’s sister. B is C’s father. D is C’s mother. What is A’s relation to D?

Family tree:

• B is C’s father → B is a parent of C
• D is C’s mother → D is a parent of C
• Since B and D are the two parents of C, B and D are spouses
• A is B’s sister, so A is the sister of D’s husband

A (female) is the sister of B (male), and B is married to D (female). The sister of a woman’s husband is her sister-in-law.

Answer: Sister-in-law ✓

Example 3: Multiple Relations If P is Q’s mother, R is P’s brother, and S is R’s son, how is P related to S?

Family tree:

• P is Q’s mother → Q is a child of P
• R is P’s brother → R is P’s sibling (male)
• S is R’s son → S is a child of R

S is the child of P’s brother, so S is the child of P’s sibling. The child of one’s sibling is one’s nephew (male) or niece. Since S is a son, S is P’s nephew, which makes P the aunt of S.

Answer: Aunt (P is S’s aunt; S is P’s nephew) ✓

Key Relationship Chains:

Relationship	Generation
Grandparent	+2 generations
Parent	+1 generation
Sibling	Same generation
Aunt/Uncle	Same generation as parent
Niece/Nephew	-1 generation
Cousin	Same generation as niece/nephew’s parent

⚠️ SSC CGL Common Mistakes:

1. Getting confused by gender-specific terms
2. Not distinguishing between maternal and paternal sides
3. Missing that “only” eliminates other possibilities
4. Forgetting that siblings share at least one parent

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🔴 Extended — Deep Study (3mo+)

Comprehensive coverage with complex family trees and previous year SSC CGL patterns.

Complex Blood Relation Problems:

Example 1: Chained Relationships Introducing a boy, a girl said, “He is the son of my mother’s brother.” How is the boy related to the girl?

Solution:

• “My mother’s brother” is the girl’s maternal uncle.
• The boy is the son of that maternal uncle.
• The son of one’s maternal uncle is one’s maternal cousin.

The boy cannot be the girl’s brother, because the maternal uncle is the mother’s sibling, not the girl’s parent.

Answer: Maternal cousin ✓

Example 2: Multiple Indirect Relations A is B’s father. B is C’s sister. D is C’s mother. What is A’s relation to D?

Family tree:

• A is B’s father → B is a child of A
• B is C’s sister → B and C are siblings, sharing at least one parent
• D is C’s mother → D is a parent of C

Since B and C are siblings and D is C’s mother, D is also B’s mother. A is B’s father and D is B’s mother, so A and D are the two parents of B. Therefore A is D’s husband.

Answer: Husband (A is D’s husband; D is A’s wife) ✓

Example 3: In-Laws and Blood Relations Combined X and Y are married to two sisters. Pointing to a photograph, X says, “The man in the photograph is my wife’s brother.” How is the man in the photograph related to Y?

Solution:

• The man in the photograph is X’s wife’s brother, i.e., X’s brother-in-law.
• X and Y are married to two sisters, so X’s wife and Y’s wife are sisters and share the same brother.
• Therefore the man is also Y’s wife’s brother.

The brother of one’s wife is one’s brother-in-law, so the man is the brother-in-law of both X and Y.

Answer: Brother-in-law (to both X and Y) ✓

Previous Year SSC CGL Patterns:

Pattern 1 — Pointing-to-a-relation: Pointing to a lady, a man said, “Her father is the only son of my grandfather.” How is the lady related to the man?

Solution:

• The man’s grandfather’s only son is the man’s father.
• So the lady’s father is the man’s father.
• The lady and the man share the same father, which makes them siblings.

Answer: Sister (the lady is the man’s sister) ✓

Pattern 2 — Linear chain: If P is the father of Q and Q is the father of R, how is P related to R?

P → Q → R. P is the father of Q, and Q is the father of R, so P is two generations above R.

Answer: Grandfather ✓

Pattern 3 — Mixed chain: A is B’s sister. B is C’s mother. D is C’s son. E is D’s mother. How is A related to D?

Family tree:

• A and B are sisters
• B is the mother of C
• D is the son of C, so C is D’s parent
• E is D’s mother, so E is C’s wife and C is male (D’s father)

A is the sister of B, and B is C’s mother, so A is C’s aunt. D is C’s son, which places A one further generation up from D. A is the sister of D’s grandmother, so A is D’s grand-aunt; in standard SSC phrasing this is reported as Aunt.

Answer: Aunt (grand-aunt) ✓

Coded Blood Relations: Sometimes relationships are given in code, such as “A + B” meaning A is B’s sister. Decode each symbol into a plain relationship before building the family tree.

Standard Notation for Solving:

• Use ’+’ for a same-generation sibling relationship
• Use ’/’ for a parent-child relationship
• Or use generation markers: ↑ for parent, → for spouse

Family Tree Symbols:

• □ = Male
• ○ = Female
• Lines show relationships
• Double line = siblings
• Single line down = parent to child

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