Body: <p>What would be the best performing algorithm to solve the Word Ladder problem, in terms of guaranteed finding of the shortest solution in the shortest possible time? Is it BFS, DFS, A*, IDA* or another one? How are these algorithms compared with each other?</p>
  <p>For the Word Ladder puzzle, a starting and an ending word of the same length are given. The goal is to convert the starting word to the ending word by changing only on letter at a time. Intermediate words should be valid words. E.g. <strong>silly</strong> =&gt; sully =&gt; sulky =&gt; hulky =&gt; hunky =&gt; funky =&gt; <strong>funny</strong></p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-03-26T20:41:03.693Z
Comments.Text: What do you mean by "best performing"? Performing in terms of what?
Comments.UserDisplayName: nbro
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-03-27T09:26:47.210Z
Comments.Text: Best performing in terms of guaranteed finding of the shortest solution in the shortest possible time
Comments.UserDisplayName: Bill Kavvas
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-03-27T09:30:00.663Z
Comments.Text: Ok. Edit your post to include this info! What do you know about this problem and algorithms? For example, can DFS be applied to this problem?
Comments.UserDisplayName: nbro
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2022-03-27T10:01:43.170Z
Comments.Text: Ok, the question is edited. I know that BFS and A* can be applied, probably also DFS, but I don't know which one will give a guaranteed optimal solution.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Bill Kavvas
Tags: <optimization><search><algorithm><graphs>
Title: Best algorithm for the Word Ladder puzzle
UserDisplayName: Bill Kavvas
ThreadText: # Best algorithm for the Word Ladder puzzle
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2022-03-26)
  
  What would be the best performing algorithm to solve the Word Ladder problem, in terms of guaranteed finding of the shortest solution in the shortest possible time? Is it BFS, DFS, A\*, IDA\* or another one? How are these algorithms compared with each other?
  
  For the Word Ladder puzzle, a starting and an ending word of the same length are given. The goal is to convert the starting word to the ending word by changing only on letter at a time. Intermediate words should be valid words. E.g. **silly** => sully => sulky => hulky => hunky => funky => **funny**
  
  **Tags:** optimization, search, algorithm, graphs
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: What do you mean by "best performing"? Performing in terms of what?  
  > **username_0**: Best performing in terms of guaranteed finding of the shortest solution in the shortest possible time  
  > **username_1**: Ok. Edit your post to include this info! What do you know about this problem and algorithms? For example, can DFS be applied to this problem?  
  > **username_0**: Ok, the question is edited. I know that BFS and A* can be applied, probably also DFS, but I don't know which one will give a guaranteed optimal solution.  
  
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  ## 0 answers
  
  