Poople #331: KICK 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 KICK.

Moves

5

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

2

The dictionary has 2 equally short routes; the route below is one of them.

1. Move 1: KICK → HICK — change the 1st letter from K to H.
2. Move 2: HICK → HOCK — change the 2nd letter from I to O.
3. Move 3: HOCK → HOOK — change the 3rd letter from C to O.
4. Move 4: HOOK → HOOP — change the 4th letter from K to P.
5. Move 5: HOOP → POOP — change the 1st letter from H to P.