Blood Relation Questions with Answers

Blood Relation Questions with Answers: Quick Answer

These 20 blood relation questions are original practice questions written for this page. They are not previous year questions, they are not copied from any book, test series or website, and none of them repeats an example from the two concept notes linked below. Every answer was worked out by building the family tree for the question in code and computing the relation from that tree, then checking it a second time by tracing the path between the two people through the tree. If the two derivations had disagreed, the question would not be on this page.

The set mixes the four forms that SSC and bank exams actually ask: statement-based questions across two or three generations, coded relations with a stated code key, pointing and photograph questions, and a three-generation family puzzle. Two or three of the coded questions are deliberately harder, at banking level, with longer chains and one expression-choice question where only one option gives the stated relation. Work through the set in order, cover the answer, draw the tree, and only then read the solution. As of 2 November 2026.

If you need the method before the questions, start with the blood relation questions for SSC CGL note for the shorter SSC style, or the blood relation questions for bank exams note for coded relations and family puzzles at bank level. The shortcut box below is the minimum you need to attempt this set.

Blood Relation Formula, Codes and Shortcuts

There is no formula to memorise in the maths sense. The method is a drawing habit plus two checks.

Draw the tree in rows. Put grandparents on the top row, parents in the middle, children at the bottom. Mark male with (M) and female with (F) only when a relation word says so: son, brother, husband, father, uncle and nephew are male; daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt and niece are female. Child, sibling, spouse, cousin and parent say nothing about gender. Spouses share a row. A married couple's child belongs to both of them.

Read the question backwards. "How is X related to Y?" asks what X is to Y, not the other way round. Solve from the last person named back towards the first, one relation at a time, and replace each phrase with one word: "my mother's brother's son" becomes "my cousin".

Coded questions. Translate each symbol into words first, from left to right, and add each person to the tree before moving to the next symbol. Never carry a code in your head across a whole chain. In this set every coded question states its own code key, and the keys differ between questions, so read the key given for that question and ignore the others.

Common traps. First, son-in-law is not nephew: a daughter's husband is a son-in-law, while a sibling's son is a nephew, and the two are often offered side by side. Second, maternal means through the mother and paternal means through the father: a mother's brother is a maternal uncle, a father's brother is a paternal uncle, and swapping them is the commonest wrong answer in this topic. Third, if the gender of the person in the answer is never stated, the gendered options are all wrong: choose the gender-free word, such as grandparent or parent, or "cannot be determined" where that option is given. Fourth, "only son" and "only daughter" usually point back to one fixed person, often the speaker or the speaker's parent, so slow down on the word "only".

20 Blood Relation Questions with Answers and Solutions

Statement Questions: Two and Three Generations

Q1. Meera is the daughter of Anil. Anil is the brother of Sunita. Sunita is the mother of Rohit. How is Rohit related to Meera?

(A) Cousin (B) Brother (C) Nephew (D) Uncle

Answer: (A) Cousin.

Family tree:

• Anil (M) and Sunita (F) are siblings.
  • Meera, child of Anil.
  • Rohit, child of Sunita.

Reasoning chain: Anil and Sunita are brother and sister, so their children are on the same generation. Children of siblings are cousins. Rohit is not Meera's brother, because they do not share a parent, and he is not her nephew, because he is not her sibling's child.

Q2. Sanjay is the husband of Anita. Anita is the daughter of Ramesh. Ramesh is the father of Vikram. How is Sanjay related to Vikram?

(A) Son-in-law (B) Brother-in-law (C) Nephew (D) Cousin

Answer: (B) Brother-in-law.

Family tree:

• Ramesh (M), father of Anita (F) and Vikram (M).
  • Sanjay (M), husband of Anita.

Reasoning chain: Anita and Vikram are sister and brother. Sanjay is Anita's husband, so he is her brother's brother-in-law. The trap is option (A): Sanjay is Ramesh's son-in-law, but the question asks about Vikram, not Ramesh. Always answer for the second person named.

Q3. Farhan is the child of Geeta. Geeta is the wife of Imran. Imran is the son of Jaya. How is Jaya related to Farhan?

(A) Grandmother (B) Grandfather (C) Grandparent (D) Aunt

Answer: (C) Grandparent.

Family tree:

• Jaya, parent of Imran (M).
  • Imran (M) married to Geeta (F).
    • Farhan, child of Imran and Geeta.

Reasoning chain: Imran is Jaya's son, and Farhan is Imran's child, so Jaya is two generations above Farhan: a grandparent. Jaya's gender is never stated anywhere in the question, so neither grandmother nor grandfather can be chosen. The gender-free word is the only safe answer.

Q4. Tanvi is the sister of Dev. Dev is the son of Lata. Arjun is the son of Lata's brother. How is Arjun related to Tanvi?

(A) Brother (B) Nephew (C) Uncle (D) Cousin

Answer: (D) Cousin.

Family tree:

• Lata (F), mother of Tanvi (F) and Dev (M).
• Lata's brother Manoj (M), father of Arjun.

Reasoning chain: Tanvi's parent is Lata, and Arjun's parent is Lata's brother. Arjun and Tanvi are the children of two siblings, so they are cousins. Arjun is not Tanvi's brother, because he has a different parent, and he is not her nephew, because he sits on the same generation as her.

Coded Questions: Read the Key for Each Question

Q5. Use this code: A * B means A is the father of B; A @ B means A is the wife of B; A # B means A is the son of B; A % B means A is the sister of B. In the expression M % N * P # Q, how is M related to Q?

(A) Aunt (B) Sister-in-law (C) Mother-in-law (D) Sister

Answer: (B) Sister-in-law.

Family tree, decoded left to right:

• M % N: M is the sister of N.
• N * P: N is the father of P.
• P # Q: P is the son of Q, so Q is P's mother and N's wife.

Reasoning chain: M is N's sister, and Q is N's wife. A husband's sister is a sister-in-law. M is not Q's aunt, because M sits on N's generation, not a generation above Q, and M is not Q's mother-in-law, because M is not the parent of Q's spouse in the parent sense: she is the spouse's sister.

Q6. Use this code: A & B means A is the mother of B; A ^ B means A is the brother of B; A ! B means A is the husband of B; A ~ B means A is the daughter of B. Which expression means "R is the maternal uncle of T"?

(A) R & S ^ T (B) R ! S & T (C) R ^ S & T (D) R ~ S & T

Answer: (C) R ^ S & T.

Reasoning chain, one option at a time: (A) R is the mother of S, and S is the brother of T, so R is T's mother. (B) R is the husband of S, and S is the mother of T, so R is T's father. (C) R is the brother of S, and S is the mother of T, so R is the brother of T's mother: the maternal uncle. (D) R is the daughter of S, and S is the mother of T, so R is T's sister. Only (C) gives the stated relation, which is why expression-choice questions must be checked option by option rather than guessed from one familiar symbol.

Pointing and Photograph Questions

Q7. Pointing to a photograph, Kavya said, "The woman in the photograph is the wife of my father's only brother." How is the woman related to Kavya?

(A) Mother (B) Sister-in-law (C) Cousin (D) Aunt

Answer: (D) Aunt.

Family tree:

• Kavya's father (M) and his only brother (M) are siblings.
  • The woman (F), wife of the brother.

Reasoning chain: a father's brother is a paternal uncle. The uncle's wife is an aunt by marriage, and "Aunt" is the option that names her. She is not Kavya's mother, because she is married to the father's brother, not to the father.

Q8. Pointing to a man, Shreya said, "He is the father of my mother's only daughter." How is the man related to Shreya?

(A) Maternal grandfather (B) Paternal grandfather (C) Father (D) Uncle

Answer: (C) Father.

Family tree:

• The man (M), father of Shreya.
  • Shreya (F), the only daughter of her mother.

Reasoning chain: "my mother's only daughter" is Shreya herself, since Shreya is the speaker and her mother's only daughter. The man is the father of that daughter — the father of Shreya — so he is Shreya's father, option (C). The trap is option (A): it misreads the phrase as "the father of my mother". The man is the father of the daughter, not the father of the mother; a maternal grandfather would be the mother's father.

Q9. Aditya's grandfather has exactly one son, who is Aditya's father. The grandfather also has a daughter named Uma. How is Uma related to Aditya?

(A) Mother (B) Sister (C) Paternal aunt (D) Maternal aunt

Answer: (C) Paternal aunt.

Family tree:

• Grandfather (M), parent of Aditya's father (M) and Uma (F).
  • Aditya, child of the father.

Reasoning chain: Uma is the sister of Aditya's father. A father's sister is a paternal aunt. The statement that the grandfather has exactly one son fixes Aditya's father as that son, so Uma cannot be Aditya's father's wife or Aditya's mother: she is the grandfather's daughter, on the father's side.

Q10. Ritu is married to Naveen. Naveen's sister is Pooja. Pooja is married to Tarun. How is Tarun related to Ritu?

(A) Cousin (B) Nephew (C) Uncle (D) Brother-in-law

Answer: (D) Brother-in-law.

Family tree:

• Naveen (M) married to Ritu.
• Pooja (F), sister of Naveen, married to Tarun (M).

Reasoning chain: Tarun is the husband of Ritu's husband's sister. The husband of a spouse's sibling is a brother-in-law. Work it in two hops, Naveen to Pooja and then Pooja to Tarun, rather than trying to jump straight from Tarun to Ritu.

Q11. Pointing to a photograph of a boy, Uma said, "His father is the only son of my husband's mother." How is the boy related to Uma?

(A) Son (B) Nephew (C) Brother (D) Grandson

Answer: (A) Son.

Family tree:

• Uma's husband's mother (F), whose only son is Uma's husband (M).
  • Uma (F) married to the husband.
    • The boy (M), child of the husband.

Reasoning chain: the husband's mother's only son is Uma's husband himself. The boy's father is that husband, so the boy is Uma's son. The phrase "my husband's mother" removes the ambiguity that "my mother-in-law" would leave, because it fixes Uma as the wife in the pair.

Q12. Kunal is the son of Meera. Meera is the sister of Sanjay. Sanjay is married to Anita. How is Anita related to Kunal?

(A) Paternal aunt (B) Maternal aunt (C) Mother (D) Sister-in-law

Answer: (B) Maternal aunt.

Family tree:

• Meera (F) and Sanjay (M) are siblings.
  • Kunal, son of Meera.
  • Anita (F), wife of Sanjay.

Reasoning chain: Sanjay is Kunal's mother's brother, which makes him the maternal uncle. Anita is the maternal uncle's wife, so she is the maternal aunt by marriage. She is not the paternal aunt, because the link runs through Kunal's mother, not his father.

Q13. Mohit is the brother of Anita. Anita is the mother of Vikas. Shreya is the sister of Vikas. How is Shreya related to Mohit?

(A) Daughter (B) Cousin (C) Nephew (D) Niece

Answer: (D) Niece.

Family tree:

• Mohit (M) and Anita (F) are siblings.
  • Vikas (M) and Shreya (F), children of Anita.

Reasoning chain: Shreya is Anita's daughter, and Mohit is Anita's brother. A brother's daughter is a niece, and Shreya's gender is fixed by the word "sister" in the question. She is not Mohit's daughter, because her parent is Anita, and she is not his cousin, because she sits a generation below him.

Q14. Sanjay is the father of Pooja. Pooja is married to Rohit. Rohit is the son of Anita. How is Sanjay related to Rohit?

(A) Father-in-law (B) Father (C) Uncle (D) Brother-in-law

Answer: (A) Father-in-law.

Family tree:

• Sanjay (M), father of Pooja (F).
  • Pooja married to Rohit (M), son of Anita (F).

Reasoning chain: Sanjay is the father of Rohit's wife, and a wife's father is a father-in-law. He is not Rohit's father: Rohit's parent is Anita, and Sanjay is linked to Rohit only through the marriage. Reading "how is Sanjay related to Rohit" from Rohit's side is what makes the in-law term fall out correctly.

Harder Coded Questions: Banking Level

Q15. Use this code: A + B means A is the mother of B; A - B means A is the father of B; A x B means A is the sister of B; A / B means A is the brother of B; A = B means A is the wife of B. In the expression P + Q / R - S x T, how is P related to T?

(A) Mother (B) Grandmother (C) Aunt (D) Great-grandmother

Answer: (B) Grandmother.

Family tree, decoded left to right:

• P + Q: P is the mother of Q.
• Q / R: Q is the brother of R, so P is also R's mother.
• R - S: R is the father of S.
• S x T: S is the sister of T, so T is also R's child.

Reasoning chain: T is R's child, and P is R's mother, so P is two generations above T: a grandmother. She is not T's mother, because one more generation sits between them, and she is not a great-grandmother, because only two steps separate them. This is the length of chain that banking prelims use, and it is solved the same way: one symbol, one tree step, no skipping.

Q16. Use this code: A + B means A is the mother of B; A - B means A is the father of B; A x B means A is the sister of B; A / B means A is the brother of B; A = B means A is the wife of B. Which expression shows that K is the maternal grandfather of N?

(A) K + L - N (B) K / L + N (C) K - L + N (D) K - L / N

Answer: (C) K - L + N.

Reasoning chain, one option at a time: (A) K is the mother of L, and L is the father of N, so K is N's paternal grandmother. (B) K is the brother of L, and L is the mother of N, so K is N's maternal uncle. (C) K is the father of L, and L is the mother of N, so K is the father of N's mother: the maternal grandfather. (D) K is the father of L, and L is the brother of N, so K is N's father. Only (C) puts K two generations up on the mother's side, which is exactly what "maternal grandfather" means.

Q17. Use this code: A @ B means A is the child of B; A # B means A is the spouse of B; A % B means A is the sibling of B. In the expression X @ Y # Z % W, how is X related to W?

(A) Niece or nephew, gender cannot be determined (B) Niece (C) Nephew (D) Cousin

Answer: (A) Niece or nephew, gender cannot be determined.

Family tree, decoded left to right:

• X @ Y: X is the child of Y.
• Y # Z: Y is the spouse of Z, so X is also Z's child.
• Z % W: Z is the sibling of W.

Reasoning chain: X is the child of W's sibling, which makes X W's niece or nephew. But the code words used here, child, spouse and sibling, never give X's gender, and no other statement does either. So neither "niece" nor "nephew" alone can be chosen. This is the banking trap to watch for: a question that looks fully solved until you notice that the one fact the answer needs was never given.

Family Puzzle: Three Generations

Directions for Q18 to Q20. There are eight members in a family: A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H, across three generations. A is married to B. B is the mother of C and D. C is the sister of D and is married to E. F is the daughter of C and E. G is the son of D. H is the wife of D.

Family tree:

• Generation 1: A (M) married to B (F).
  • Generation 2: C (F) married to E; D (M) married to H (F).
    • Generation 3: F (F), daughter of C and E; G (M), son of D and H.

Q18. How is F related to B?

(A) Daughter (B) Granddaughter (C) Niece (D) Cousin

Answer: (B) Granddaughter.

Reasoning chain: F is the daughter of C, and C is the daughter of B. Two generations down from B, female, gives granddaughter. F is not B's daughter, because C sits between them, and she is not B's niece, because she is in B's own direct line.

Q19. How is G related to A?

(A) Son (B) Nephew (C) Grandson (D) Cousin

Answer: (C) Grandson.

Reasoning chain: G is the son of D, and D is the son of A and B. Two generations down from A, male, gives grandson. A is D's father because A is married to B, the mother of C and D, so the direct line runs A to D to G even though the question never calls A a father in words.

Q20. How is H related to F?

(A) Paternal aunt (B) Mother (C) Sister-in-law (D) Maternal aunt

Answer: (D) Maternal aunt.

Reasoning chain: C is F's mother (F is the daughter of C and E, and the stem now states C is D's sister, so C is female), and D is C's brother, so D is F's maternal uncle. H is D's wife, so she is F's maternal aunt by marriage. The side is maternal because the link runs through F's mother, not her father, and H is not F's mother, because F's mother is C.

Blood Relation Questions with Answers FAQs

Are these blood relation questions previous year questions?

No. All 20 questions on this page are original practice questions written for this page, and they are labelled as practice throughout. They are not taken from any previous year paper, and no previous year paper is claimed or linked as their source. For real previous year papers, use the playable papers on the SSC CGL mock test hub.

How do you solve coded blood relation questions quickly?

Translate each symbol into words from left to right, add each person to a small family tree as you go, and only then read the asked pair off the tree. Do not try to hold the whole chain in words. The code key changes between questions in this set, so always use the key printed with the question you are solving.

What is the difference between maternal and paternal relations?

Maternal relations run through the mother and paternal relations run through the father. A mother's brother is a maternal uncle, a father's brother is a paternal uncle, a mother's sister is a maternal aunt, and a father's sister is a paternal aunt. In this set, Q9, Q12, Q16 and Q20 all turn on that one distinction.

When is "cannot be determined" the right answer?

When the answer needs a fact the question never gives, most often a gender. If a relation word such as son, daughter, father or mother is needed but the statements only give gender-free words such as child, sibling or spouse, the gendered options cannot be chosen. Q3 and Q17 in this set are built on exactly that gap, and guessing a gender there is the mistake the question is testing.

Which exams ask blood relation questions?

SSC exams including CGL, CHSL, MTS, CPO and GD ask them as short statement and coded questions in reasoning, and bank exams including IBPS PO, IBPS Clerk, SBI PO, SBI Clerk and RRB PO and Clerk ask them as single questions, coded sets and family puzzles. The method is the same for both: draw the tree, mark gender only from relation words, and read the answer from the second person's side. The concept notes for each side are the blood relation questions for SSC CGL note and the blood relation questions for bank exams note.

Practice Next

• Concept notes: blood relation questions for SSC CGL and blood relation questions for bank exams.
• Timed practice: SSC CGL mock test hub, bank exam mock test hub, SSC CGL Blood Relation Mock Test 01 and SBI PO Blood Relation Mock Test 01.
• Browse all study notes.