Poople #281: SHIM 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 SHIM.

Moves

5

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

5

The dictionary has 5 equally short routes; the route below is one of them.

1. Move 1: SHIM → SLIM — change the 2nd letter from H to L.
2. Move 2: SLIM → SLIP — change the 4th letter from M to P.
3. Move 3: SLIP → SLOP — change the 3rd letter from I to O.
4. Move 4: SLOP → PLOP — change the 1st letter from S to P.
5. Move 5: PLOP → POOP — change the 2nd letter from L to O.