Poople #5: HALE 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 HALE.

Moves

5

Difficulty

Hard

Shortest paths

10

The dictionary has 10 equally short routes; the route below is one of them.

1. Move 1: HALE → PALE — change the 1st letter from H to P.
2. Move 2: PALE → POLE — change the 2nd letter from A to O.
3. Move 3: POLE → POME — change the 3rd letter from L to M.
4. Move 4: POME → POMP — change the 4th letter from E to P.
5. Move 5: POMP → POOP — change the 3rd letter from M to O.