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TNPSC logical reasoning practice questions with solutions

By the PrepMatic team · Updated 9 Oct 2026 · 4 min read

Logical reasoning is the broadest item in the Group 4 reasoning syllabus, and in practice it means five or six small question types that repeat from paper to paper: blood relations, directions, calendar days, syllogisms and clocks. Each type has a method that takes under a minute once learned. The five questions below take one of each. The matching subject guide is TNPSC aptitude and mental ability.

What this topic covers

• Blood relations: working out how two people are related from a description.
• Direction sense: distance and direction after a series of turns.
• Calendar: finding the day of the week for a date.
• Syllogisms: deciding which conclusions follow from the statements.
• Clocks: the angle between the hands and the time they overlap.

Sample questions

Question 1

Pointing to a photograph, Anitha says, "He is the son of my father's only sister." How is the man related to Anitha?

• A. Brother
• B. Cousin
• C. Uncle
• D. Nephew

Question 2

Arun walks 5 km north, turns right and walks 3 km, then turns right again and walks 5 km. How far, and in which direction, is he from the starting point?

• A. 3 km east
• B. 5 km east
• C. 3 km west
• D. 13 km north-east

Question 3

If 5 March of a year is a Thursday, then 5 April of the same year is a:

• A. Friday
• B. Saturday
• C. Monday
• D. Sunday

Question 4

Statements: All pens are books. All books are tables. Conclusions: I. All pens are tables. II. All tables are books. Which of the following is correct?

• A. Only conclusion I follows
• B. Only conclusion II follows
• C. Both conclusions follow
• D. Neither conclusion follows

Question 5

The angle between the hour hand and the minute hand of a clock at 4 o'clock is:

• A. 90°
• B. 120°
• C. 100°
• D. 150°

Answers and explanations

1. B. Anitha's father's sister is her paternal aunt, and the aunt's son is Anitha's cousin. A brother would be her own father's son, not her father's sister's son.
2. A. Facing north, a right turn faces east, so he goes 3 km east. A second right turn faces south, so he goes 5 km south. The 5 km north and 5 km south cancel, leaving him 3 km east of the start.
3. D. From 5 March to 5 April is 31 days, which is 4 weeks and 3 days. Thursday plus 3 days is Sunday.
4. A. Pens are inside books and books are inside tables, so all pens are tables, which makes conclusion I true. Conclusion II reverses the second statement, and a table need not be a book, so it does not follow.
5. B. The hour hand moves 30 degrees per hour. At 4 o'clock the minute hand is at 12 and the hour hand is at 4, so the angle is 4 × 30 = 120 degrees.

How to prepare logical reasoning

Learn one method per question type and practise it until it is automatic. For blood relations, always draw a tree with symbols for male and female. For directions, draw a compass, mark the starting point and plot each move with an arrow. For syllogisms, never rely on common sense: "All tables are books" feels odd in real life, but the question is about the statements, not about the world.

Calendar questions need one table: odd days for a month. A 31-day month shifts the weekday by 3, a 30-day month by 2 and February by 0 (or 1 in a leap year). From a known date, you can reach any other by adding odd days.

For the clock, remember that the minute hand moves 6 degrees per minute and the hour hand 0.5 degrees per minute. The formula in the table covers any time, and the two hands overlap about 11 times in 12 hours.

Combine this chapter with TNPSC puzzles practice and TNPSC alpha-numeric reasoning practice. All three use the same habit: turn words into a diagram before you answer.

Take the full topic test on PrepMatic

Reasoning is the most trainable part of the paper, and short rounds work best. A PrepMatic topic test (about 15 questions, 30 minutes) gives you one. When you have taken several, the subject-wise accuracy and speed per question in your analytics show where reasoning stands against General Studies, so you can decide how to split your next week.

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