A transformation sequence from word beginWord to word endWord using a dictionary wordList is a sequence of words beginWord -> s1 -> s2 -> โ€ฆ -> sk such that:

  • Every adjacent pair of words differs by a single letter.
  • Every si for 1 <= i <= k is in wordList. Note that beginWord does not need to be in wordList.
  • sk == endWord

Given two words, beginWord and endWord, and a dictionary wordList, return the number of words in the shortest transformation sequence from beginWord to endWord, or 0 if no such sequence exists.

Example 1:

  • Input: beginWord = โ€œhitโ€, endWord = โ€œcogโ€, wordList = [โ€œhotโ€,โ€dotโ€,โ€dogโ€,โ€lotโ€,โ€logโ€,โ€cogโ€]
  • Output: 5
  • Explanation: One shortest transformation sequence is โ€œhitโ€ -> โ€œhotโ€ -> โ€œdotโ€ -> โ€œdogโ€ -> cogโ€, which is 5 words long.

Example 2:

  • Input: beginWord = โ€œhitโ€, endWord = โ€œcogโ€, wordList = [โ€œhotโ€,โ€dotโ€,โ€dogโ€,โ€lotโ€,โ€logโ€]
  • Output: 0
  • Explanation: The endWord โ€œcogโ€ is not in wordList, therefore there is no valid transformation sequence.

Constraints:

  • 1 <= beginWord.length <= 10
  • endWord.length == beginWord.length
  • 1 <= wordList.length <= 5000
  • wordList[i].length == beginWord.length
  • beginWord, endWord, and wordList[i] consist of lowercase English letters.
  • beginWord != endWord
  • All the words in wordList are unique.