Cheating at the game Wordle with OCaml

wordle.ml

Cheating at Wordle with OCaml.

usage

Grab dependencies from opam

opam install dune ppx_inline_test

Modify the rules list in bin/main.ml. Then run:

cat words.txt | dune exec bin/main.exe | head
# upeat 71385
# cheat 69860
# theca 69860
# thema 68635
# wheat 65555
# tweag 64450
# tweak 63350
# theat 59228
# theta 59228
# theah 54996

These candidates are sorted by a very rough heuristic:

• For each letter, add the number of times that letter appears in any word
• Multiply by the number of unique letters (more letters means more clues!)

rules reference

Given a target string, the following rules are used as follows:

• Exact (ch, idx) - The character at index idx is equal to ch
• Other (ch, idx) - Character ch is found at an index not equal to idx
• Never ch - The character ch never appears in the string
• AtLeast (ch, count) - The character ch appears in the string at least count times

results

It works okay! I cheated on day 197 starting with "SIREN"

Wordle 197 3/6

🟨 ⬛ ⬛ ⬛ ⬛
⬛ ⬛ ⬛ 🟨 🟨
🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩

example

Let's image we have the word "CHEAT."

Set rules to [] and run:

cat words.txt | dune exec bin/main.exe | head
# arose 84745
# orate 84735
# arise 83645
# raise 83645
# serai 83645
# arite 83635
# irate 83635
# retia 83635
# tarie 83635
# ariel 83570

Manually computing this, "AROSE" would get a pattern of 🟨 ⬛ ⬛ ⬛ 🟨 . Modify rules accordingly and re-run:

let rules =
  [ Other ('a', 0)
  ; Never 'r'
  ; Never 'o'
  ; Never 's'
  ; Other ('e', 4)
  ]

cat words.txt | dune exec bin/main.exe | head
# laeti 80260
# entia 79490
# tenai 79490
# tinea 79490
# elain 79425
# linea 79425
# ental 78425
# laten 78425
# leant 78425
# ileac 76085

LATEN corresponds to a pattern of ⬛ 🟨 🟩 🟨 ⬛ .

let rules =
  [ Other ('a', 0)
  ; Never 'r'
  ; Never 'o'
  ; Never 's'
  ; Other ('e', 4)

  ; Never 'l'
  ; Other ('a', 1)
  ; Exact ('e', 2)
  ; Other ('t', 3)
  ; Never 'i'
  ]

cat words.txt | dune exec bin/main.exe | head
# upeat 71385
# cheat 69860
# theca 69860
# thema 68635
# wheat 65555
# tweag 64450
# tweak 63350
# theat 59228
# theta 59228
# theah 54996

Though UPEAT is likely not in Wordle's dictionary, we'll run with it using a pattern of ⬛ ⬛ 🟩 🟩 🟩 .

let rules =
  [ Other ('a', 0)
  ; Never 'r'
  ; Never 'o'
  ; Never 's'
  ; Other ('e', 4)

  ; Never 'l'
  ; Other ('a', 1)
  ; Exact ('e', 2)
  ; Other ('t', 3)
  ; Never 'i'

  ; Never 'u'
  ; Never 'p'
  ; Exact ('e', 2)
  ; Exact ('a', 3)
  ; Exact ('t', 4)
  ]

cat words.txt | dune exec bin/main.exe | head
# cheat 69860
# wheat 65555

CHEAT wins out against WHEAT (C's are more common), giving us a successful solution.

🟨 ⬛ ⬛ ⬛ 🟨
⬛ 🟨 🟩 🟨 ⬛
⬛ ⬛ 🟩 🟩 🟩
🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩