Poople #365: WAVE 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 WAVE.

Moves

6

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

26

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

1. Move 1: WAVE → CAVE — change the 1st letter from W to C.
2. Move 2: CAVE → COVE — change the 2nd letter from A to O.
3. Move 3: COVE → COME — change the 3rd letter from V to M.
4. Move 4: COME → POME — change the 1st letter from C to P.
5. Move 5: POME → POMP — change the 4th letter from E to P.
6. Move 6: POMP → POOP — change the 3rd letter from M to O.