Returning Related Previously Answered Questions Based on Question Affinity

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a data processing system implementing a Question and Answer (QA) system, causes the data processing system to:

• process, by the QA system, a first question to generate an answer to the first question and a supporting evidence passage that supports the answer to the first question being a correct answer to the first question;
• perform, by the QA system, a lookup operation in a question repository based on an identifier of the supporting evidence passage to identify an entry corresponding to a previously processed question, different than the first question, that previously had an answer generated based on the supporting evidence passage;
• and
• return, by the QA system, the previously processed question and the answer to the first question to a submitter of the first question.

A data processing system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• process a first question to generate an answer to the first question and a supporting evidence passage that supports the answer to the first question being a correct answer to the first question;
• perform a lookup operation in a question repository based on an identifier of the supporting evidence passage to identify an entry corresponding to a previously processed question, different than the first question, that previously had an answer generated based on the supporting evidence passage;
• and
• return the previously processed question and the answer to the first question to a submitter of the first question.