答案
とうあん · touan · JLPT N3 · noun
test paper
📝 答案 = answer + draft: the paper where you draft your answers
答 (tō) means answer, as in 回答, and 案 (an) means draft or proposal, as in 案内 and 提案. So 答案 is your drafted answers, the exam script you hand in. Note that in Chinese, 答案 just means answer.
答 — bamboo radical 竹 + 合 (combine)
Originally written with the bamboo radical because answers were inscribed on bamboo slips. The phonetic 合 ('to join, match') gives both the sound and the sense of a reply 'matching' a question. Over time 答 came to mean 'answer' or 'respond' generally.