title: Words With Friends: How to Determine Word Strength
body: <p>I'm asking this question because I am very curious about real world implementation of code in the world. I am currently a sophomore CS major with a minor in video game development, and have a strong fundamental understanding of coding languages like Java and C++, but struggle to understand how certain real world features are implemented.</p>
  
  <p>To some degree I would almost consider this an ELI5 situation.</p>
  
  <p>In Words With Friends, there is a feature that determines how strong the word you've placed is relative to your potential moves.</p>
  
  <p>The thing is, in order to compare the current word the highest potential play, you need to determine what that play would be.</p>
  
  <p>My question is: how would you efficiently go about finding the highest scoring play in this situation, without using sheer horsepower and systematically checking every single possible tile combination in single spot in which you could play a word? This gets tricky to me especially since you can play tiles that weave horizontally/vertically through already established words.</p>
  
  <p>I know this is a very niche question, but i'd love if anyone had any insight on the issue.</p>