Poople #268: WAND 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 WAND.

Moves

6

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

9

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

1. Move 1: WAND → BAND — change the 1st letter from W to B.
2. Move 2: BAND → BOND — change the 2nd letter from A to O.
3. Move 3: BOND → BONK — change the 4th letter from D 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.