Poople #436: ITEM 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 ITEM.

Moves

6

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

1

The dictionary has one shortest route for this puzzle.

1. Move 1: ITEM → STEM — change the 1st letter from I to S.
2. Move 2: STEM → STEP — change the 4th letter from M to P.
3. Move 3: STEP → STOP — change the 3rd letter from E to O.
4. Move 4: STOP → SLOP — change the 2nd letter from T to L.
5. Move 5: SLOP → PLOP — change the 1st letter from S to P.
6. Move 6: PLOP → POOP — change the 2nd letter from L to O.