1. A method, in a data processing system comprising a processor and a memory, for answering an input question, the method comprising: receiving, in the data processing system, an input question to be answered from a source; processing, by the data processing system, the input question to extract one or more features of the input question; comparing, by the data processing system, the extracted one or more features to cached features stored in one or more entries of a question and answer (QA) cache of the data processing system; determining, by the data processing system, whether there is a matching entry in the one or more entries of the QA cache based on results of the comparing; retrieving, by the data processing system, in response to a matching entry being present in the one or more entries of the QA cache, candidate answer information from the matching entry; and returning, by the data processing system, the retrieved candidate answer information to the source of the input question as candidate answer information for answering the input question.