About room #201
- Ladder
- FILE → HYPE
- Word length
- 4
- Par (fewest steps)
- 5
- Letters that differ
- 3
Room #201 climbs from FILE to HYPE. Of their 4 letters, 3 differ (positions 1, 2, 3); each of those needs a rung of its own, so the shortest imaginable ladder has 3 rungs — par here is 5.
So 2 rungs are sidesteps: somewhere a correct letter gets spoiled for a moment, or a letter from neither word is borrowed.
If a step leads to a word that can only change back, undo it and try another position.
Four-letter words, but five or six steps.
Stuck? Open a hint
Hint: the first step
Change letter 3 to R: FIRE.
Show one shortest ladder
FILE → FIRE → TIRE → TYRE → TYPE → HYPE
Rules of Word Ladder · One letter at a time: planning ladders and guesses