
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
Some middle school students in a city participated in a mathematics invitational competition, which consisted of 6 problems. It is known that each problem was solved by exactly 500 students, but for any two students, there is at least one problem that neither of them solved. What is the minimum number of middle school students who participated in this mathematics invitational competition?

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