
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
A company has 40 employees, 25 of whom use computers of brand X and 15 use computers of brand Y. For networking, these computers can only be connected to one another with direct cables that can only connect a brand X computer to a brand Y computer. Employees can send emails to each other either directly if their computers have a direct cable connection, or by relaying emails through a chain of connected computers. To start, no computer is connected to any other. A technician connects one computer from brand X and one from brand Y with a cable, provided there is no existing cable between that pair. The process continues until at least one chain of connections allows every employee to send emails to every other one. What is the maximum number of cables the technician might use?
A) 375  
B) 350  
C) 349  
D) 351  
E) 360

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
user