For calculating an employee's bonus, how many test cases are needed to cover all valid equivalence partitions?

To determine the number of test cases needed to cover all valid equivalence partitions for calculating an employee's bonus, it is essential to first identify the different scenarios that affect the calculation.

Equivalence partitioning involves dividing possible inputs into groups or partitions where the system behaves similarly for values in the same group. When testing the bonus calculation, you would typically consider factors such as:

1. Performance Level (e.g., poor, satisfactory, excellent).
2. Years of Service (e.g., less than 1 year, between 1 and 5 years, more than 5 years).
3. Base Salary Ranges (e.g., below a certain threshold, within a certain range, above a certain amount).

Given these considerations, if we assume that each of these factors has 3 valid partitions, then for the bonus calculation, you would require to ensure coverage for each grouping. In a simple approach, you could reason that:

• Performance Level: 3 partitions (poor, satisfactory, excellent).
• Years of Service: 3 partitions (less than 1 year, 1 to 5 years, greater than 5 years).
• Base Salary: 3 partitions (thresholds defining low, mid-range, high).

To cover all different