# Answer Bank Concepts

This section describes the main terms and concepts in Answer Bank.

- Question. A question is something that has been, or might be, asked by an end user of your system. A question can either be part of an existing question/answer pair, or added to the Answer Bank process, where you can either discard it or add it to a new or existing question/answer pair.

- Question/Answer Pair. A question/answer pair (also known as Q/A pair) is a self-contained FAQ entry. It consists of a reference question, an answer, and some associated metadata:

  - Reference Question. The most appropriate question for the specified answer. This reference question might be displayed to end users, depending on your front end application.

  - Answer. The answer to the reference question. The answer is displayed to end users.

  - Rule. A query expression that matches end user questions to a particular question/answer pair. When answering questions from end users, the rule is used to find the most appropriate reference question and therefore the best answer.

    The rule can use Boolean and proximity operators, and bracketed expressions to specify precedence. The most common operators are `AND`, `OR`, `NOT`, and `NEAR`.

  - Equivalent Questions. A set of alternative questions that are considered equivalent to the reference question. The Answer Bank uses these questions to test the rule.

## Example

Your Answer Bank system contains the following questions:

- Why is the sky blue?
- What makes the sky appear blue?
- How does the sky get its blue color?

You combine these questions in a question/answer pair, with the reference question 'Why is the sky blue?'. You include the other two questions as equivalent questions.

You define the rule `sky AND blue` to match all the variants of the question.

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