Blood Relations - The Complete Basics
Master SSC-CGL Blood Relations with a simple family-tree method, a full relationship cheat-sheet, photograph and coded-relation worked examples, key shortcuts, and a self-check quiz.
By the PadhoDost Team · 📖 6 min read · Updated 4 August 2026
Part of SSC CGL & Banking prep🧠 Draw your family group photo
Picture a big family photo at a wedding: grandparents seated in the middle, their sons and daughters standing around them, and the little grandchildren in front. If someone points at a person and says 'that is my mother's brother's son', you instantly find him in the photo. Blood Relations is just that photo drawn as a small tree - once it is on paper, the answer jumps out.
What Blood Relation Questions Ask
You are given a chain of family statements ('A is the father of B', 'B is the sister of C') or a 'pointing to a photograph' riddle, and you must name the final relationship between two people. The danger is doing it in your head - one wrong turn and the whole answer flips. The safe method is always to draw a quick family tree and read the relation off it.
The Relationship Cheat-Sheet
| Clue phrase | Actual relation |
|---|---|
| Father's / Mother's father | Grandfather |
| Father's / Mother's mother | Grandmother |
| Father's brother / Mother's brother | Uncle |
| Father's sister / Mother's sister | Aunt |
| Brother's / Sister's son | Nephew |
| Brother's / Sister's daughter | Niece |
| Son's / Daughter's son | Grandson |
| Sister's husband / Wife's brother | Brother-in-law |
| Brother's wife / Wife's sister | Sister-in-law |
| Son's wife | Daughter-in-law |
Draw the family tree
- 1Read one statement at a time and note each person's gender from the exact word used (son, daughter, he, she).
- 2Place the older generation on top and the younger generation below - like steps of a ladder.
- 3Put married couples side by side, and hang their children directly below them.
- 4Never guess gender from a name (Kiran, Suman, etc. can be anyone) - use only stated words.
- 5Finally, trace the path from the two people in the question and name the relation.
📝 Worked Example - The Photograph Puzzle
Q: Pointing to a photo, a man says, 'I have no brother or sister, but that man's father is my father's son.' Whose photo is it?
Start inside-out: 'my father's son'. The man has no brothers, so his father's only son must be himself.
So 'that man's father' = the speaker himself.
If the speaker is that man's father, then the man in the photo is the speaker's son.
Answer: his son.
📝 Worked Example - Coded Relations
Code: A + B means A is the father of B; A - B means A is the mother of B; A x B means A is the brother of B.
Question: what does 'P - Q x R' tell us about P and R?
Break it left to right. P - Q: P is the mother of Q. Q x R: Q is the brother of R.
Q and R share the same parents, and P is Q's mother, so P is also R's mother.
Answer: P is the mother of R.
Remember these
- ✓Always draw a tree: elders on top, children below, couples side by side.
- ✓Decide gender only from explicit words, never from a person's name.
- ✓'Only son/daughter of...' usually points back to the speaker's own parent - a handy shortcut.
- ✓In coded relations, decode one symbol at a time, strictly left to right.
- ✓Same-generation links mean sibling or spouse; across generations means parent-child.
⚡ Quick check
Pointing to a woman, Rahul said, 'She is the daughter of my grandfather's only son.' How is the woman related to Rahul?
Ready to test yourself? 🎯
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