The word "HEARTLESS" can be split into smaller independent English words without changing the order of letters and using each letter only once in the entire split. Into how many such independent meaningful words can "HEARTLESS" be divided?

Introduction / Context:
This question tests your ability to segment a longer word into a sequence of smaller meaningful English words, without reordering any letters. The base word is "HEARTLESS". You must partition it so that every letter is used exactly once and each segment is itself a valid word. This involves both pattern spotting and vocabulary knowledge.

Given Data / Assumptions:
• The base word is "HEARTLESS".
• We must split this word into several contiguous segments that together use all letters exactly once.
• Each segment must be a valid, commonly used English word.
• The order of letters inside the base word cannot be changed; we only decide where to place the splits.

Concept / Approach:
The natural approach is to scan from left to right and see where meaningful segments appear. Because "HEARTLESS" starts with "HEAR" and contains "ART" and "LESS", a good strategy is to experiment with segment points around these obvious portions. We then choose the splitting scheme that uses all letters and yields the maximum number of valid words.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Write the word with positions: H E A R T L E S S.Step 2: Examine the start. The first two letters "HE" form a familiar pronoun and are a complete word by themselves.Step 3: After "HE", the next letters are A R T, which together form "ART", another clear English word.Step 4: The remaining letters are L E S S, which form the word "LESS", again a very common English word meaning a smaller amount.Step 5: Combining these observations, we can split "HEARTLESS" as HE / ART / LESS.Step 6: All letters of the base word are used exactly once, and each segment is a clear, independent English word.

Verification / Alternative check:
We can check if any other partition yields more than three words. For example, trying "HEAR / T / LESS" is not valid because "T" is not an independent word. "HE / A / RTLESS" or similar splits also fail because "A" is a valid word but "RTLESS" is not, and we must use all letters. Therefore, the best valid segmentation is HE, ART, and LESS, giving exactly three independent words.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
• 2: This would require that there are only two segments such as "HEART" and "LESS". Although "HEARTLESS" can be conceptually seen as HEART + LESS, we are asked to count how many words it can be divided into, and HE + ART + LESS shows that three is possible.
• 4 or 5: These larger counts would require including non words or one letter segments like "T" that do not qualify as meaningful words here.
• 1: This would treat "HEARTLESS" as the only word, which contradicts the existence of valid internal segments such as HE, ART and LESS.

Common Pitfalls:
Some candidates try to over segment the word into too many pieces, including letters that are not words on their own. Others may miss the internal word "ART" and think only of HEART and LESS as two parts. A systematic scan for common small words, especially at the start and end, usually reveals the most natural partitioning.

Final Answer:
The word "HEARTLESS" can be divided into 3 independent meaningful words: "HE", "ART" and "LESS".