Poople #371: MICE 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 MICE.

Moves

6

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

14

The dictionary has 14 equally short routes; the route below is one of them.

1. Move 1: MICE → DICE — change the 1st letter from M to D.
2. Move 2: DICE → DIME — change the 3rd letter from C to M.
3. Move 3: DIME → DOME — change the 2nd letter from I to O.
4. Move 4: DOME → POME — change the 1st letter from D 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.