Poople Solver | Shortest Word Ladder to POOP
Stuck mid-ladder and tired of guessing? Type whatever four letter word you're sitting on and this solver will find the shortest path from there to POOP, with every single rung a real word. It runs right in your browser, no sign-up, no waiting.
How the solver works
It does a breadth-first search over a dictionary of common four letter words, the same kind of search Poople itself uses to set par. It starts from your word and tries every possible one letter change, then every word reachable from those, and so on, until it hits POOP. The first time it reaches POOP is guaranteed to be the shortest path, because it explores in order of fewest steps first.
Why your ladder might look different
More than one route can reach POOP in the same number of steps, so the path you find on your own may be just as short as the one shown here even if the words aren't identical. As long as you finish in par, any valid route is a win. If your own ladder is longer than the one the solver shows, that's a sign there was a shorter detour you missed, usually a vowel swap you didn't think to try.
Want to practice instead?
The solver is a rescue tool, not a substitute for the game. If you want to get faster at finding ladders on your own, the hints guide walks through the strategy, and Unlimited gives you random ladders to practice on with no daily limit.