Maze generator: printable mazes with solutions

A fresh maze with every click, on paper or on screen

This maze generator draws a new maze in a split second: a rectangle, a circular maze made of rings, a heart or a star, from a tiny 5 × 5 for preschoolers to a 60 × 60 that keeps an adult busy for a good while. A green arrow marks the start and a red arrow marks the finish (a red dot in the middle for the circle). The solution is worked out for you and prints on its own page.

How to use it

1. Pick a Level: "Kids 4-6", "Ages 7-9", "Adult" or "Expert". Each button sets the size and the line thickness.
2. Adjust the Shape, the Generation method, "Width (cells)" and "Height (cells)" (5 to 60), or the number of "Rings" for the circle (3 to 30).
3. Set "Line thickness" from 1 to 5. Thick lines help young kids keep their pencil inside the paths.
4. Click "New maze" (or press the space bar) until you like the result. To bring back an old one, type its number into "Maze number".
5. Under "Print", choose "1 large maze" or "4 mazes" per page, tick "Solution on a second page", then click "Print". The layout is made for A4 portrait; on US Letter paper, pick "fit to page" in the print dialog if the bottom gets cut off.

Playing on screen

Click "Play on screen" or the maze itself, then steer the blue dot with the arrow keys or W, A, S, D. On a phone, swipe or tap the four arrow buttons. The timer starts with your first step, "Moves" counts the cells and a blue line traces your path. "Restart the game" takes you back to the start.

Which level for which age?

For toddlers under 4, stay at 5 × 5 with the thickest line. A 6 × 6 maze has 36 cells, a 25 × 25 has 625 and a 60 × 60 has 3,600. Hearts and stars are sized with "Size (cells)", from 10 or 12 up to 60.

Ideas for home, school and trips

Classroom. In kindergarten or first grade, print the same maze for everyone and write its number on the board; the solution page doubles as the answer key. Older students can compare the three generation methods, or race the clock on the projector as an early-finisher challenge.

Parties. For a birthday or a scavenger hunt, put a heart or star maze in each envelope: whoever reaches the exit first wins the next clue.

Road trips and flights. A page of four small mazes covers a long car ride or a wait at a restaurant, with no screen and no battery. The PNG and SVG buttons also save the picture for later.

How the maze is built

Start with a grid where every cell is boxed in by walls, then knock walls down one by one. The three methods differ in the order they knock them down:

• Backtracker: walk in a random direction for as long as you can, then back up until a new direction opens. You get long winding corridors and few dead ends, about one cell in ten.
• Prim: the maze spreads out from one cell like an ink blot. It has lots of short dead ends, about one cell in three, and the right path is harder to spot.
• Kruskal: open walls at random all over the grid, skipping any opening that would close a loop. Dead ends end up spread evenly across the maze.

Whatever the method, the result is a perfect maze: every cell can be reached and there is exactly one path between any two cells. A 25 × 25 maze therefore has exactly 624 openings for its 625 cells.

The hand-on-the-wall trick

Put your right hand (or left) on the wall at the entrance and never let go: you will reach the exit. Here it always works, even for the center of the circle, because every maze on this page is perfect, with no islands and no loops. It is not the shortest route, since you walk into every dead end and back out.

FAQ

How do I get back a maze I already printed?

Its number is printed under it. Set the same shape, size and method, type the number into "Maze number" and the identical maze comes back. With 4 mazes per page the numbers follow on, for example 812, 813, 814 and 815.

Can the solution print on the same sheet?

No, it always goes on the next page so you can keep it aside. Untick "Solution on a second page" if you don't need it.

Are my settings saved?

Yes, on your device. The maze number changes on every visit.

Can I play the circular maze with the keyboard?

Yes. The arrows follow the direction on screen: near the top of the circle, the right arrow moves you clockwise; near the bottom, it moves you counterclockwise. The goal is the red dot in the middle.