Write pseudocode to design a programming solution by outlining a series of steps and using appropriate indentation and keywords.

Question

Problem: A company wants a program that will calculate the weekly paycheck for an employee based on how many hours they worked. For this company, an employee earns $20 an hour for the first 40 hours that they work. The employee earns overtime, $30 an hour, for each hour they work above 40 hours.

Example: If an employee works 60 hours a week, they will earn $20/hr. for the first 40 hours. Then they would earn $30/hr. for the 20 hours, they worked overtime. Therefore, they earned: ($20/hr. * 40hrs) + ($30/hr. * 20 hrs.) = $800 + $600 = $1400 total.

As you write your pseudocode, be sure to consider the following:

1. What input does the computer need?
2. What steps does the program need to follow to process the input? What output should result?
3. When might you need to use decision branching? If you used decision branching, did you account for all possible input values?
4. Did you use appropriate indentation and keywords (such as IF, ELSE, CALCULATE, and so on) throughout your pseudocode?

Answer 1

What input does the computer need?

In this case, only `hours` would be needed as input, since we know that the standard rate for everyone is $20 and $30 for overtime pay

What steps does the program need to follow to process the input? What output should result?

The program follows two main steps:

1. See if hours > 40 or less than 40
2. Calculate pay accordingly.
3. If its greater than 40, then we know we need to account for over time so it would look something like this: total pay = (40 x $20) + (hours - 40 x $30).
4. If its less than 40, then its simply going to be: total pay = (hours x $20)

When might you need to use decision branching? If you used decision branching, did you account for all possible input values?

Yes, we will use decision branching. Whether hours greater than or less than 40 hours, this is our decision and the branches will be: Include overtime and exclude overtime

Did you use appropriate indentation and keywords (such as IF, ELSE, CALCULATE, and so on) throughout your pseudocode?

The pseudocode will look something like this:

Function calculate paycheck

Input: hours

Ouput: paycheck amount

IF hours is greater than 40

THEN regular hours = 40

overtime hours = hours - 40

RETURN (regular hours x 20) + (overtime hours x 30)

ELSE

RETURN (hours x 20)