problem in reading serialized file from servlet

[Seshakumar]

Hi guys! am new to this forum and this is my first thread :)
am not sure if am posting at the correct forum, but its regarding servlets

am doing a web application for 'online exam' using jsp, servlets and java bean.
i've three serialized files holding my questions(questions.ser), options(options.ser) and answers(answers.ser) in /WEB-INF. i read them and store in an arraylist in servlet.
but all i get is java.io.filenotfoundexception.. i tried placing the .ser files in /WEB-INF/classes where servlet classes are placed.. still same error

ObjectInputStream questions = new ObjectInputStream(new FileInputStream("/WEB-INF/questions.ser"));
ObjectInputStream options = new ObjectInputStream(new FileInputStream("/WEB-INF/options.ser"));
ObjectInputStream answers = new ObjectInputStream(new FileInputStream("/WEB-INF/answers.ser"));

this is how i access the files.. am struck with this. no proper topics in google search too.. thanks in advance:)