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do assumption q ever have more than one assumption connecting the evidence to form the conclusion?
could it go E>A>E>A = C?

Yes, for any assumption question, there may be more than one assumption made in the argument that connects the premises to the conclusion. There will however, only ever be one correct answer, so only one of these assumptions will correctly appear in the answer choices.

The standard form is usually P --> C, and the assumption bridges the premise(s) to the conclusion. For necessary assumption questions, you are almost always finding something that connects this "gap".

But as you mentioned, an argument can also take the form P --> IC --> C (where IC is the intermediate conclusion). It is possible that the correct answer to a necessary assumption question will bridge the first part of this relationship, P --> IC (and therefore may not have a direct bearing on the conclusion) but this is very rare. Almost always, necessary assumptions will bridge the premise(s) to the conclusion in a direct way.

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