Learn ·
Worked examples
Real ladders from the game, walked through one rung at a time.
Read a worked ladder from the top
A worked ladder is printed as a single column, with the starting word at the top and the goal at the bottom. Read it downwards. Each line is one word, and each gap between two lines is one move. Nothing is skipped and nothing happens between rungs. The word above and the word below differ in exactly one letter position, and every word in the column is a real word of the same length. Read the column upwards and you get the same puzzle in reverse, which helps when you want to see how the goal was reached. Each rung has to work with the words above and below it, so a single line tells you little on its own.
What changes at each rung
A rung changes one letter and holds the rest still. The length never changes, the word never stops being a word, and no rung rearranges letters or swaps two positions at once. The thing to watch is which position moves at each step. Follow that position down the column and you can see the route being built. A letter is replaced, a mismatch is fixed, and now and then a letter is parked in a temporary position so a later step can use it. Those parked letters look like detours, and they are often necessary, because the direct change would land on something that is not a word. Reading the position rather than only the word is what turns a worked example into something you can copy.
Your step count and par
When you solve a ladder yourself, count your steps, meaning the number of gaps between your first word and your last. Compare that with par, the number of steps in the shortest possible ladder for the puzzle. Par is not a guess or an estimate. It is found by exhaustive search, so a shorter route either exists and the search would have found it, or it does not exist. If your count matches par, your route cannot be improved. If it is two or three steps above par, you have not failed. You have a specific number to beat next time, and that gap is the most useful feedback the puzzle gives you. A longer route is still a solved puzzle.
What to notice when you get stuck
Being stuck usually looks like repetition. You keep returning to the same two or three words, or you keep changing the same letter position, and each attempt feels new while the column stops growing. Notice the repetition first. Then check the position you have been avoiding, because a stalled route often means one mismatch has never been addressed. Write the goal at the top of a fresh line, list its neighbours, and look for a word that links the two ends. If the loop continues, Rung a Day offers up to three hints per puzzle, and a hint reveals one letter of a shortest route. Spend one at the point of real looping rather than out of impatience.
Questions
Why does a ladder take more steps than the letters that differ?
Because each step has to land on a real word. A direct change is sometimes blocked, so the route parks a letter in another position and brings it back later. Those extra rungs are real steps, and par accounts for them.
Can I read a worked ladder from the bottom up?
Yes. The rules work the same in either direction, since one letter changes between each pair of words. Reading upwards is useful when you want to see how the goal was reached and which positions the last steps corrected.
How do I know whether my route is as short as possible?
Compare your step count with par for that puzzle. Par comes from an exhaustive search, so if your count matches it, nothing shorter exists. If your count is higher, the gap tells you how much room is left.
Play today’s ladder → one puzzle a day, about two minutes.