Poople #165: PING to POOP

Path analysis

This route reaches POOP in 6 moves. Breadth-first search reaches every route with fewer moves first, so POOP cannot be reached in fewer than 6 moves from PING.

Moves

6

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

9

The dictionary has 9 equally short routes; the route below is one of them.

1. Move 1: PING → PONG — change the 2nd letter from I to O.
2. Move 2: PONG → BONG — change the 1st letter from P to B.
3. Move 3: BONG → BONK — change the 4th letter from G to K.
4. Move 4: BONK → BOOK — change the 3rd letter from N to O.
5. Move 5: BOOK → BOOP — change the 4th letter from K to P.
6. Move 6: BOOP → POOP — change the 1st letter from B to P.