Poople #297: RIPS 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 RIPS.

Moves

6

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

26

The dictionary has 26 equally short routes; the route below is one of them.

1. Move 1: RIPS → HIPS — change the 1st letter from R to H.
2. Move 2: HIPS → HOPS — change the 2nd letter from I to O.
3. Move 3: HOPS → BOPS — change the 1st letter from H to B.
4. Move 4: BOPS → BOOS — change the 3rd letter from P to O.
5. Move 5: BOOS → BOOP — change the 4th letter from S to P.
6. Move 6: BOOP → POOP — change the 1st letter from B to P.