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How to solve a word ladder
Work from both ends, count the differences, and stop wandering through vowels.
Count the letters you must change
Before you move a letter, compare the start word and the goal and count the positions where they differ. If three positions differ, no ladder can be shorter than three steps, because each step changes exactly one letter. That count is your lower bound. It is not the answer, since some changes cannot be made without leaving the list of real words, but it gives you a target. Par, the length of the shortest possible ladder, is found by exhaustive search, so a ladder that matches your count is as short as the puzzle allows. Keep the number visible while you work, so you can tell progress from motion.
Work backwards from the goal
Stuck players often look only forward. Spend a few minutes doing the opposite. Put the goal at the top and list three or four real words that are one letter away from it. Then list the same kind of neighbours for the start word. Look for a word that appears on both lists, or two words that are one step apart. Meeting in the middle halves the distance you have to reason about, and it shows routes that pushing forward alone tends to hide. If a forward attempt stalls after four or five rungs, switch ends instead of pushing harder. Write both lists down, because holding two sets of words in your head is where small errors creep in.
Avoid the same-position trap
The common trap is to keep changing the same letter slot. You try a word, dislike it, change that position again, and produce a run like bat, bet, bit and bot. Each one is a real word, and the change keeps landing in the same slot. Most of these runs are vowel swaps in a single position, which feel like movement and are not. A step that does not fix a mismatched position should at least move the mismatch somewhere useful. Decide the position first, then choose the word. Before you commit, say which position it corrects and which new problem it creates. If you cannot answer either, the rung is a wander.
Spend hints on loops, not on the last step
Rung a Day gives you up to three hints per puzzle, and a hint reveals one letter of a shortest route. Spend them where you are genuinely looping, not where you are nearly finished. If you have tried several routes and keep returning to the same two or three words, a hint breaks that cycle. If you are one or two steps from the goal, keep working, because the last rung is usually within reach. Treat a revealed letter as a constraint: find a real word that fits it at the right step, then continue from there. A hint used at the point of real confusion saves more time than one used out of curiosity.
Questions
Why is my ladder longer than the letters I changed?
Because each step must land on a real word. A direct change is sometimes blocked, so the route moves a letter aside and brings it back later. Those extra rungs are genuine, and par comes from exhaustive search.
Should I start from the first word or from the goal?
Sketch both. List a few one-letter neighbours of each end and look for a word on both lists or a pair one step apart. Working from both ends stops you committing to a direction that dead-ends.
What does a hint actually show?
One letter of a shortest route. It does not hand you the next word, so treat it as a constraint. Find a real word that fits that letter at the right step, then carry on from there.
Play today’s ladder → one puzzle a day, about two minutes.