lol you are right, can't believe I just ignored xor gates

It doesn't matter, you're still very wrong on this and it's easy to verify it ;-)

apologies I used the wrong sign in my comment. I meant n(n +1)/2. the n-1 version would not have yielded 450

the total for each row of the matrix is n(n-1)/2

See, this is your problem, you made the same mistake someone down below did ;-)

If you had compared the result of a straightforward solution to your "simplification", you'd have instantly noticed that the result from your side is wrong ;-)

Thanks for the quick response. Just putting the transmission loss aside. the total for each row of the matrix is n(n-1)/2. since your index is Zero based, max integer in this example is 4. the sum up to 4 is 10. multiply this value by the number of rows. this yields a max total without loss factored in of 450

First, this is a question, not an issue ;-)

I think you didn't understand the kata correctly. Maybe you should read the description again, or clarify why/how does that 450 come up.