Poople #14: HALF to POOP

Path analysis

This route reaches POOP in 5 moves. Breadth-first search reaches every route with fewer moves first, so POOP cannot be reached in fewer than 5 moves from HALF.

Moves

5

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

2

The dictionary has 2 equally short routes; the route below is one of them.

1. Move 1: HALF → HALL — change the 4th letter from F to L.
2. Move 2: HALL → PALL — change the 1st letter from H to P.
3. Move 3: PALL → POLL — change the 2nd letter from A to O.
4. Move 4: POLL → POOL — change the 3rd letter from L to O.
5. Move 5: POOL → POOP — change the 4th letter from L to P.