Answer management in a question-answering environment

A question-answering system having improved technical functioning such that it provides high-quality and complete responses to input queries, the question-answering system comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processor in communication with the memory, the processor configured to obtain instructions from the memory that cause the processor to perform a method comprising:
• receiving, by the question-answering system, an input query, wherein the input query is a request for instructions to achieve a result;
• parsing, by the question-answering system using a natural language processing technique configured to analyze syntactic and semantic content, the input query;
• searching, by the question-answering system and based on the parsed input query, a set of corpora;
• generating, by the question-answering system and based on the searching, a plurality of answers;
• analyzing, by the question-answering system, the generated plurality of answers;
• generating, by the question-answering system and based on the analysis, a plurality of answer categories;
• sorting, by the question-answering system, the plurality of answers into the plurality of answer categories, wherein, upon the sorting, each answer is included in one answer category, there is at least one answer in at least two answer categories, and there is at least one answer category with at least two answers;
• generating, by the question-answering system and based on the plurality of answer categories, a category sequence, wherein the category sequence includes two or more answer categories;
• establishing, by the question-answering system and based on the category sequence, an answer sequence, wherein the answer sequence includes at least one answer from each category of the two or more categories included in the category sequence;
• evaluating, by the question-answering system, the answer sequence, wherein the evaluating the answer sequence comprises:
• comparing a confidence score of the answer sequence as a whole to confidence scores of the individual answers that make up the answer sequence;
• and
• determining, based on the comparing, that the answer sequence as a whole has a higher confidence score than any of the individual answers that make up the answer sequence;
• and
• presenting, by the question-answering system and as a response to the input query, the evaluated answer sequence, wherein the answer sequence is a single, organized, complete answer that includes all of the answers in the answer sequence to be used in combination to achieve the result.

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a question-answering system having improved technical functioning such that it provides high-quality and complete responses to input queries to cause the question-answering system to perform a method comprising:

• receiving, by the question-answering system, an input query, wherein the input query is a request for instructions to achieve a result;
• parsing, by the question-answering system using a natural language processing technique configured to analyze syntactic and semantic content, the input query;
• searching, by the question-answering system and based on the parsed input query, a set of corpora;
• generating, by the question-answering system and based on the searching, a plurality of answers;
• analyzing, by the question-answering system, the generated plurality of answers;
• generating, by the question-answering system and based on the analysis, a plurality of answer categories;
• sorting, by the question-answering system, the plurality of answers into the plurality of answer categories, wherein, upon the sorting, each answer is included in one answer category, there is at least one answer in at least two answer categories, and there is at least one answer category with at least two answers;
• generating, by the question-answering system and based on the plurality of answer categories, a category sequence, wherein the category sequence includes two or more answer categories;
• establishing, by the question-answering system and based on the category sequence, an answer sequence, wherein the answer sequence includes at least one answer from each category of the two or more categories included in the category sequence;
• evaluating, by the question-answering system, the answer sequence, wherein the evaluating the answer sequence comprises:
• comparing a confidence score of the answer sequence as a whole to confidence scores of the individual answers that make up the answer sequence;
• and
• determining, based on the comparing, that the answer sequence as a whole has a higher confidence score than any of the individual answers that make up the answer sequence;
• and
• presenting, by the question-answering system and as a response to the input query, the evaluated answer sequence, wherein the answer sequence is a single, organized, complete answer that includes all of the answers in the answer sequence to be used in combination to achieve the result.