Poople #390: NEWS 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 NEWS.

Moves

6

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

9

The dictionary has 9 equally short routes; the route below is one of them.

1. Move 1: NEWS → MEWS — change the 1st letter from N to M.
2. Move 2: MEWS → MOWS — change the 2nd letter from E to O.
3. Move 3: MOWS → BOWS — change the 1st letter from M to B.
4. Move 4: BOWS → BOOS — change the 3rd letter from W 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.