Poople #411: PAIN 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 PAIN.

Moves

5

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

2

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

1. Move 1: PAIN → LAIN — change the 1st letter from P to L.
2. Move 2: LAIN → LOIN — change the 2nd letter from A to O.
3. Move 3: LOIN → LOON — change the 3rd letter from I to O.
4. Move 4: LOON → LOOP — change the 4th letter from N to P.
5. Move 5: LOOP → POOP — change the 1st letter from L to P.