Maze Generator (printable mazes for kids)

When a child asks for a maze, choose a size and shape and get a printable maze with the solution path on its own page. Besides rectangles it makes circular, triangle and hexagon mazes, heart, star and animal shapes, and mazes in the shape of a letter such as the first letter of a name; a child can also trace the path on screen with a finger.

How to use

1. Under "Difficulty preset", choose "Preschool (8×8, wide paths)", "School age (15×15)" or "Hard (40×40)", or type the "Columns" and "Rows".
2. Choose a "Shape" (rectangle, circle, triangle, hexagon cells, picture outline, letter or number), then the "Method" and the "Entrance and exit".
3. Open "Look and print settings" to set the path width, wall thickness, start and goal pictures, title, "Mazes per page" and "Add answer page".
4. Press "Save as PDF" or "Print". If you do not like the maze, press "New maze".
5. On the "Solve on screen" tab, draw along the path from the start with a finger or the mouse. The line cannot cross walls, and the page says when the goal is reached.

How it works

• Every maze is a perfect maze: all cells are connected and there are no loops, so there is exactly one path from start to goal. The solution is found by breadth-first search.
• The difficulty comes from the forks met on the solution path: up to 5 is easy, up to 15 medium, up to 39 hard, more is very hard. The number of dead ends and the solution length are shown too.
• The same "Maze number" and settings give the same maze again on any device. With 2 or 4 mazes per page, -2, -3 and so on are added to the number so each maze is different.
• Settings are saved only in this browser. Letter shapes are drawn with this device's font, so they can look slightly different on another device.

Maze generation methods: which makes easy or hard mazes

The recursive backtracker digs as far as it can in one direction and then backs up to dig again, which gives long winding corridors and a long solution. Prim's method grows evenly outwards from one cell and leaves many short dead ends. Hunt and kill digs long paths and, when stuck, looks for an undug cell to start again, so it mixes both styles.

Binary tree and sidewinder leave a long open run along the top edge (binary tree also along the left edge) and are easy to solve, which suits young children. Sidewinder is offered for rectangles only; on other shapes binary tree uses the same rule of always joining towards the starting corner.

Maze size for preschoolers: how many cells

For a first maze, about 8×8 with cells of 15 mm or more works well, because a child can draw with a crayon or thick pen without touching the walls. The "Preschool" preset sets 8×8, 15 mm cells, thick walls and one maze per page.

School-age children can start at 15×15 and move to 25×25 or 40×40. Mazes with the same number of cells can differ a lot in difficulty depending on the method, so use the number of forks shown on the page to choose.

Questions and answers

Is the answer printed too?

With "Add answer page" on, a page with the solution path follows the maze page. The path can be drawn as red dashes or a light band.

Can a maze have two different solutions?

No. Every maze is a perfect maze with exactly n−1 passages for n cells, so there is only one path from start to goal.

Can I make a maze shaped like my child's initial?

Choose "Letter or number" under "Shape" and type one or two characters under "Letter". With 30×30 cells or more the letter shape is easy to see.

How do I make a circular maze?

Choose "Circle (rings)" under "Shape" and set the number of "Rings". With "Outside to centre" the maze starts at the outer edge and ends in the middle.

Can I make the same maze again later?

Write down the "Maze number". Entering the same number with the same settings makes exactly the same maze.