A family of two generations consisting of six members P, Q, R, S, T and U has three males and three females. There are two married couples and two unmarried siblings. U is P’s daughter and Q is R’s mother-in-law. T is an unmarried male and S is a male. Which one of the following is correct?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) R is S’s wife.
Q, a mother-in-law, belongs to the older couple, so P (U's parent) is her husband. Their children are U, T and one married child whose spouse is R. With three males already P, T and S, R must be female and married to S.
- Q is R's mother-in-law, so Q is a woman of the older generation and R is married to Q's child.
- Two couples: the older couple and R with Q's child. U is P's daughter, so P is the older couple's other member — P is Q's husband (male).
- Males: P, T and S = three, so Q, U and R are the three females.
- R, a female, is married to a son of Q. T is unmarried, so that son is S — R is S's wife.
- The remaining two, U and T, are the unmarried siblings.
- Check (a): R is female, so cannot be U's husband; (c): S is married.
Remember · In family puzzles, fix the generations first, then use the male/female count to settle the remaining roles.
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·