Basic Inequality Symbols and Rules

Inequality is the most predictable scoring block in SBI Clerk Reasoning, usually worth 3 to 5 marks that a prepared candidate clears in under two minutes. Each question gives a chain of symbols linking letters and asks whether one or two conclusions definitely follow. Because the whole topic runs on five symbols and a handful of combining rules, it rewards memory and speed far more than thinking, which is exactly why you should treat it as guaranteed marks rather than a puzzle to reason through.

The Five Symbols You Must Read Instantly

Every question uses only five relations: greater than, less than, greater-than-or-equal, less-than-or-equal, and equal. The arrow always opens toward the larger quantity, so in A > B the value A is bigger. The two 'or-equal' signs matter most, because they quietly allow the two sides to be equal, and that single possibility decides many either-or questions. Train your eye to register each symbol without pausing, the way you read words, so the chain becomes a picture rather than a line you decode letter by letter.

Combining a Chain: Same Direction Wins

To join two links into a conclusion, both must point the same way. In A > B > C the value A is clearly greater than C, so A > C follows. When the two signs differ in strength, the weaker relation controls the result: A > B ≥ C still gives A > C because the strict sign survives, while A ≥ B ≥ C gives only A ≥ C. Read the whole chain in one direction and carry the strongest strict sign forward to the two end letters you are asked about.

The 'No Relation' Outcome

The single most important rule is that opposite signs meeting at a common letter give no conclusion. In A > B < C both A and C are bigger than B, but nothing tells you how A and C compare, so any conclusion linking them is not definite. This is where most marks are lost: candidates assume a relation that the chain never proves. The moment two arrows point toward the same middle letter, or away from it, stop and mark the end letters as unrelated instead of guessing. A quick mental picture helps: if the middle letter is the smallest of the three, like the valley in A > B < C, both neighbours sit above it at unknown heights, so their order is genuinely open. The same holds when the middle letter is the largest, the peak in A < B > C, where both neighbours sit below it. In either shape the two ends float free, and only the either-or trick, covered later, can ever rescue a definite answer from such a chain.

✗ From A > B < C concluding that A > C  |  ✓ Opposite signs meet at B, so A and C have no definite relation

Solved Examples

Example 1: Given P ≥ Q > R, is P > R true? The strict sign survives the join, so P > R definitely follows. Example 2: Given M < N > O, compare M and O. Both are smaller than N, the signs are opposite, so the answer is no relation and any conclusion about M versus O fails. Example 3: Given X ≥ Y ≥ Z, the conclusion X > Z does not definitely follow, because every sign is an 'or-equal' sign and X could equal Z; only X ≥ Z is certain, which is a distinction the examiner tests again and again.