
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
In a competition with a total of 4 multiple-choice questions, each question has three choices: $A, B,$ and $C$. For any three contestants participating, there is at least one question for which their answers are all different. What is the maximum number of participants allowed in the competition?

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