DynRank: Improve Passage Retrieval with Dynamic Zero-Shot Prompting Based on Question Classification

Abdelrahman Elsayed Mahmoud Abdallah, Jamshid Mozafari, Bhawna Piryani, Mohammed M.Abdelgwad, Adam Jatowt


Abstract
This paper presents DynRank, a novel framework for enhancing passage retrieval in open-domain question-answering systems through dynamic zero-shot question classification. Traditional approaches rely on static prompts and pre-defined templates, which may limit model adaptability across different questions and contexts. In contrast, DynRank introduces a dynamic prompting mechanism, leveraging a pre-trained question classification model that categorizes questions into fine-grained types. Based on these classifications, contextually relevant prompts are generated, enabling more effective passage retrieval. We integrate DynRank into existing retrieval frameworks and conduct extensive experiments on multiple QA benchmark datasets.
Anthology ID:
2025.coling-main.319
Volume:
Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Computational Linguistics
Month:
January
Year:
2025
Address:
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Editors:
Owen Rambow, Leo Wanner, Marianna Apidianaki, Hend Al-Khalifa, Barbara Di Eugenio, Steven Schockaert
Venue:
COLING
SIG:
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
4768–4778
Language:
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2025.coling-main.319/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Abdelrahman Elsayed Mahmoud Abdallah, Jamshid Mozafari, Bhawna Piryani, Mohammed M.Abdelgwad, and Adam Jatowt. 2025. DynRank: Improve Passage Retrieval with Dynamic Zero-Shot Prompting Based on Question Classification. In Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Computational Linguistics, pages 4768–4778, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
DynRank: Improve Passage Retrieval with Dynamic Zero-Shot Prompting Based on Question Classification (Abdallah et al., COLING 2025)
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PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2025.coling-main.319.pdf