Poople Word Ladder Statistics

Dataset snapshot

This report describes the data shipped with the current Poople.org build. It is calculated from the same generated word graph that validates guesses, selects puzzle starts, and solves routes. The figures are not estimates from traffic, scraped answer pages, or a third-party game schedule.

The graph is intentionally larger than the list of words that can appear as a public start. A rare word may be useful as a bridge between familiar words without being suitable as the first word shown in a Daily puzzle. Keeping those roles separate makes the routes connected while allowing the public start pools to be more readable and predictable.

Connected words

5,395

Daily starts

427

Unlimited starts

889

Fixed target

POOP

Daily range

4 to 9 moves

Snapshot

August 6, 2026

Shortest-route distribution

The table counts each eligible start once at its verified shortest distance from POOP. Daily starts use a narrower four-to-nine-move range. Unlimited includes three-move practice puzzles, then reuses the same route rules and target. Counts describe available starts, not plays, wins, or individual player performance.

Four- and five-move starts make up most of both pools. They usually provide enough decisions to feel like a route puzzle without requiring many obscure bridges. Longer starts are deliberately scarce. Their value is variety and route study, not making every day difficult.

Four manually reviewed hard starts

Route length alone does not explain difficulty. A start with several equal shortest routes gives a player more ways to recover, while a start with one shortest route can punish an early detour. For that reason, this review pairs distance with route count and reads the actual bridge sequence instead of ranking starts from length alone.

UPON is the only nine-move Daily candidate in this snapshot and has several optimal routes. ONCE, ONTO, and INCH are eight-move examples with a single optimal route in the current graph. Their displayed paths include uncommon bridge words, which is exactly why they need editorial review before being treated as suitable public puzzles.

What the hard examples show

UPON is long but not completely narrow. Its displayed route moves through UDON, UDOS, ADOS, APOS, APOD, ALOD, PLOD, and PLOP before POOP, while the route counter finds other paths of the same length. That makes the puzzle demanding because of distance and vocabulary, but it still has more than one optimal continuation.

The eight-move examples are narrower. ONCE reaches POOP through ANCE, ANTE, ANTS, AITS, PITS, POTS, and POOS. ONTO uses INTO, INGO, INGS, INNS, IONS, PONS, and POOS. INCH uses ITCH, ETCH, EECH, PECH, PECK, POCK, and POOK. These are useful research examples, but a long verified route is not automatically a good Daily experience. Familiarity and sensitivity still require human judgment.

How the graph and distances are generated

The build process normalizes several MIT-licensed English word packages, keeps four-letter entries, applies project-maintained exclusions, and explicitly adds POOP as the fixed target. Two words receive an edge only when they differ in exactly one position. A breadth-first search from the target then assigns the shortest distance to every connected word.

Daily and Unlimited candidates are selected after connectivity is known. The public pools apply stricter start-word filters than the full bridge graph, and each candidate must fall inside its mode's distance range. At runtime, the solver follows edges that reduce the remaining distance by one, prefers higher-ranked familiar words when paths tie, and counts every equal-length shortest route represented by the graph.

How to read these numbers

The connected-word count measures the playable component that can reach POOP, not the size of English. The start counts measure eligible generated candidates, not a promise that every candidate will appear soon. Route count measures the number of shortest graph paths under this exact dictionary version; it does not measure every route a person could write using a different dictionary.

The displayed route is one reproducible optimal path, chosen partly for word familiarity. It should not be interpreted as the only correct answer when the route count is greater than one. A player can also reach the target through a longer valid route. The game reports extra moves separately so a valid solve is still recognized even when it is not optimal.

Limitations, review, and corrections

Dictionary data always contains judgment calls. Package frequency is an imperfect proxy for familiarity, regional English varies, and a technically valid bridge can still feel too obscure or unsuitable. The generator handles mechanical rules, while review lists and manual route checks handle issues that cannot be settled by graph distance alone.

This snapshot can change when a source package, exclusion, bridge word, or ranking rule changes. Before publishing revised data, the project audits connectivity and checks whether existing scheduled routes changed. If a word, count, or displayed route looks wrong, send the start word and page URL to info@poople.org. Reports are checked against the generated graph before the public data is revised.

• Counts are generated from the current repository data, not analytics.
• Public start suitability is reviewed separately from route validity.
• The snapshot date changes only when the underlying report is reviewed.