Poople #319: WARD 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 WARD.

Moves

5

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

4

The dictionary has 4 equally short routes; the route below is one of them.

1. Move 1: WARD → WORD — change the 2nd letter from A to O.
2. Move 2: WORD → WOOD — change the 3rd letter from R to O.
3. Move 3: WOOD → GOOD — change the 1st letter from W to G.
4. Move 4: GOOD → GOOP — change the 4th letter from D to P.
5. Move 5: GOOP → POOP — change the 1st letter from G to P.