
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
John creates a modified staircase using pencils, where each step consists of three segments (two vertical and one horizontal), and each segment of step k contains k pencils. Determine the number of steps in a staircase that uses 360 pencils.
A) 13
B) 14
C) 15
D) 16
E) 17

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