Poople #243: SWAY 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 SWAY.

Moves

5

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

6

The dictionary has 6 equally short routes; the route below is one of them.

1. Move 1: SWAY → SLAY — change the 2nd letter from W to L.
2. Move 2: SLAY → PLAY — change the 1st letter from S to P.
3. Move 3: PLAY → PLOY — change the 3rd letter from A to O.
4. Move 4: PLOY → PLOP — change the 4th letter from Y to P.
5. Move 5: PLOP → POOP — change the 2nd letter from L to O.