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The maximally variant safe declarations are:

trait Rel1[+X, +Y] { val pairs: List[(X, Y)] }
trait Rel2[-X, +Y] { def relatives(x: X): List[Y] }
trait Rel3[-X, -Y] { def related(x: X, y: Y): Boolean }

Leaving one or both parameters invariant is also legal but admits fewer subtyping conversions. These are type variance annotations.

For Rel1, both parameters occur only as outputs. Scala's immutable List and Tuple2 are covariant, so a list of pairs of narrower types can safely be read as pairs of broader types. Thus both may be covariant type parameters. A contravariant declaration would permit, for example, treating a Rel1[Any, Int] containing (7, 0) as a Rel1[String, Int], then reading its first component as a String. That would be unsound; the compiler rejects the negative annotation at this output position.

For Rel2, X occurs as a method argument and therefore may be a contravariant type parameter; Y is returned in an immutable list and may be a covariant type parameter. A function that accepts every Any is safe to use where only String queries are issued. The opposite direction would be unsafe: if X were covariant, the following hypothetical conversion could call a string-only implementation with an integer:

val strings: Rel2[String, Int] = new Rel2[String, Int] {
  def relatives(x: String): List[Int] = List(x.length)
}
// Unsafe if Rel2 were incorrectly covariant in X:
// val arbitrary: Rel2[Any, Int] = strings
// arbitrary.relatives(7)

Making Y contravariant would instead allow an integer-valued Rel2[String, Any] to be read as a string-valued Rel2[String, String], recreating the output error.

For Rel3, both generic values are consumed and only a Boolean function result is produced, so both may be contravariant type parameters. A predicate accepting all values of broad types can answer queries restricted to narrower types. Covariance in either parameter would allow passing an unsupported value to a specialized implementation. For example, treating a string-only first-argument predicate as accepting Any would permit related(7, y) even though its body might call x.length. These are applications of the variance-position rule: method inputs reverse variance, whereas immutable outputs preserve it.^[ref]

A programming language supporting object-oriented programming and functional programming. Its traits support reusable mixin behavior, while type variance controls how parameterized types participate in subtyping. The Scala 2 and Scala 3 language versions differ in some syntax and typing details; examples should state the version relevant to a particular claim. Official documentation: docs.scala-lang.org

A relationship in which values of one type can be used wherever values of a broader type are required, subject to the language's compatibility rules. In nominal object-oriented programming, extending a class or implementing a trait establishes relevant subtype relationships. Type variance describes how these relationships lift through parameterized types.

An upper type bound $A<:B$ requires the type argument assigned to $A$ to be a subtype of $B$. Two independently bounded parameters can retain different precise component types while sharing the same upper bound. Bounds and type variance answer different questions: admissible arguments versus subtyping between instantiations.