General Awareness and Reasoning
What this domain covers
The General Awareness and Reasoning section of the Haryana Police Constable paper tests two different skills: recall of static facts, and the ability to apply a logical rule to fresh data. Awareness questions come from Indian polity, geography, history, economy, sports, awards and everyday science; reasoning questions are almost always pattern-based and can be solved without any prior knowledge.
Awareness: what to memorise
- Constitution: Preamble, Fundamental Rights (Articles 12–35), Directive Principles (36–51), Fundamental Duties (51A), well-known amendments.
- Geography: rivers, passes, state capitals, national parks, largest/longest facts.
- Headquarters of international bodies (UN, WHO, IMF), famous books and authors, important days.
Reasoning: rule-based question types
- Number and alphabet series - test differences, ratios, squares and cubes.
- Coding–decoding - write A=1 to Z=26 and check shift patterns.
- Blood relations and direction sense - always draw a family tree or a compass sketch.
- Syllogism - use Venn diagrams and do not import real-world knowledge.
- Ranking, seating arrangement, clock and calendar, dice, mirror and water images.
Worked example
Series: 3, 7, 15, 31, ? Differences are 4, 8, 16 - each doubling. The next difference is 32, so the answer is 31 + 32 = 63. The same result comes from the rule "multiply by 2 and add 1".
Traps that cost marks
- In blood relations, never assume a person's gender from a name.
- In syllogism, a possibility conclusion is true unless it contradicts the statements.
- In series, check for two interleaved series before assuming a single rule.
- Do not spend more than about a minute on any one reasoning item.