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Maze Maker

Maze puzzles

30 mazes arranged as a ladder you can climb in one sitting: warm up small, finish on a board that takes a while. Every sheet states its measured route and dead end count, so the ladder is made of numbers rather than labels.

30 printable sheets · Checked and published by Nora Quill

The warm up: 10 by 13 boards

Eight small boards of 130 squares. Two or three minutes each, and the right place to hand the page to whoever claims mazes are beneath them before the expert rung settles the question.

Maze 1: Easy 10 x 13 Maze 1: Easy 10 x 13 A grid of 130 squares. Only 104 of them are on the correct route; the rest include 15 dead ends. Puzzle #153101. PDF
Maze 2: Easy 10 x 13 Maze 2: Easy 10 x 13 A 10 by 13 maze. The route is 70 steps and there are 16 points where you have to turn back. Puzzle #153102. PDF
Maze 3: Easy 10 x 13 Maze 3: Easy 10 x 13 A 10 by 13 grid. The correct route is 40 steps long and there are 13 dead ends waiting along the way. Puzzle #153103. PDF
Maze 4: Easy 10 x 13 Maze 4: Easy 10 x 13 130 squares and 19 dead ends. The good route passes through 40 of them. Puzzle #153104. PDF
Maze 5: Easy 10 x 13 Maze 5: Easy 10 x 13 A 10x13 maze with 18 dead ends. The solution runs 88 steps from the entrance to the exit. Puzzle #153105. PDF
Maze 6: Easy 10 x 13 Maze 6: Easy 10 x 13 24 steps end to end, spread across a 10 by 13 grid with 16 turnings that lead nowhere. Puzzle #153106. PDF
Maze 7: Easy 10 x 13 Maze 7: Easy 10 x 13 A grid of 130 squares. Only 88 of them are on the correct route; the rest include 17 dead ends. Puzzle #153107. PDF
Maze 8: Easy 10 x 13 Maze 8: Easy 10 x 13 A 10 by 13 maze. The route is 60 steps and there are 18 points where you have to turn back. Puzzle #153108. PDF

The middle rung: 17 by 22 boards

Eight boards of 374 squares, the first size that needs actual planning. Dead ends run two and three squares deep, and guessing starts to cost more than reading ahead.

Maze 9: Medium 17 x 22 Maze 9: Medium 17 x 22 A 17 by 22 grid. The correct route is 160 steps long and there are 35 dead ends waiting along the way. Puzzle #153201. PDF
Maze 10: Medium 17 x 22 Maze 10: Medium 17 x 22 374 squares and 38 dead ends. The good route passes through 142 of them. Puzzle #153202. PDF
Maze 11: Medium 17 x 22 Maze 11: Medium 17 x 22 A 17x22 maze with 41 dead ends. The solution runs 140 steps from the entrance to the exit. Puzzle #153203. PDF
Maze 12: Medium 17 x 22 Maze 12: Medium 17 x 22 160 steps end to end, spread across a 17 by 22 grid with 40 turnings that lead nowhere. Puzzle #153204. PDF
Maze 13: Medium 17 x 22 Maze 13: Medium 17 x 22 A grid of 374 squares. Only 126 of them are on the correct route; the rest include 37 dead ends. Puzzle #153205. PDF
Maze 14: Medium 17 x 22 Maze 14: Medium 17 x 22 A 17 by 22 maze. The route is 78 steps and there are 34 points where you have to turn back. Puzzle #153206. PDF
Maze 15: Medium 17 x 22 Maze 15: Medium 17 x 22 A 17 by 22 grid. The correct route is 100 steps long and there are 42 dead ends waiting along the way. Puzzle #153207. PDF
Maze 16: Medium 17 x 22 Maze 16: Medium 17 x 22 374 squares and 45 dead ends. The good route passes through 166 of them. Puzzle #153208. PDF

The hard rung: 26 by 34 boards

Eight boards of 884 squares with dead end counts in the nineties. The same size the hard mazes page is built on; here it is the second-to-last step of the ladder.

Maze 17: Hard 26 x 34 Maze 17: Hard 26 x 34 A 26x34 maze with 94 dead ends. The solution runs 115 steps from the entrance to the exit. Puzzle #153301. PDF
Maze 18: Hard 26 x 34 Maze 18: Hard 26 x 34 481 steps end to end, spread across a 26 by 34 grid with 91 turnings that lead nowhere. Puzzle #153302. PDF
Maze 19: Hard 26 x 34 Maze 19: Hard 26 x 34 A grid of 884 squares. Only 205 of them are on the correct route; the rest include 89 dead ends. Puzzle #153303. PDF
Maze 20: Hard 26 x 34 Maze 20: Hard 26 x 34 A 26 by 34 maze. The route is 327 steps and there are 95 points where you have to turn back. Puzzle #153304. PDF
Maze 21: Hard 26 x 34 Maze 21: Hard 26 x 34 A 26 by 34 grid. The correct route is 143 steps long and there are 83 dead ends waiting along the way. Puzzle #153305. PDF
Maze 22: Hard 26 x 34 Maze 22: Hard 26 x 34 884 squares and 95 dead ends. The good route passes through 389 of them. Puzzle #153306. PDF
Maze 23: Hard 26 x 34 Maze 23: Hard 26 x 34 A 26x34 maze with 89 dead ends. The solution runs 171 steps from the entrance to the exit. Puzzle #153307. PDF
Maze 24: Hard 26 x 34 Maze 24: Hard 26 x 34 233 steps end to end, spread across a 26 by 34 grid with 91 turnings that lead nowhere. Puzzle #153308. PDF

The top of this page: 34 by 45 expert boards

Six boards of 1,530 squares whose correct routes reach several hundred steps. Past this rung the extreme mazes page takes over, with boards two thirds bigger again.

Maze 25: Expert 34 x 45 Maze 25: Expert 34 x 45 A grid of 1530 squares. Only 326 of them are on the correct route; the rest include 146 dead ends. Puzzle #153401. PDF
Maze 26: Expert 34 x 45 Maze 26: Expert 34 x 45 A 34 by 45 maze. The route is 316 steps and there are 158 points where you have to turn back. Puzzle #153402. PDF
Maze 27: Expert 34 x 45 Maze 27: Expert 34 x 45 A 34 by 45 grid. The correct route is 678 steps long and there are 151 dead ends waiting along the way. Puzzle #153403. PDF
Maze 28: Expert 34 x 45 Maze 28: Expert 34 x 45 1530 squares and 147 dead ends. The good route passes through 354 of them. Puzzle #153404. PDF
Maze 29: Expert 34 x 45 Maze 29: Expert 34 x 45 A 34x45 maze with 153 dead ends. The solution runs 520 steps from the entrance to the exit. Puzzle #153405. PDF
Maze 30: Expert 34 x 45 Maze 30: Expert 34 x 45 164 steps end to end, spread across a 34 by 45 grid with 148 turnings that lead nowhere. Puzzle #153406. PDF

One page, the whole ladder

Most pages on this site commit to one size of maze. This one deliberately does the opposite: it steps through all four grid sizes the site makes, 10 by 13, 17 by 22, 26 by 34 and 34 by 45, arranged as a ladder you can climb in a single sitting. Warm up on a board that takes three minutes, finish on one whose correct route runs several hundred steps.

Every sheet states the route length and dead end count measured off its own board, which is what makes the ladder real: the rungs are numbers, not adjectives. The same measurements are how you settle who in the house actually holds the maze crown.

How to use the ladder

For one solver, work top to bottom in order; the small boards teach the reading habits the big ones punish you for skipping. For a mixed table, print one rung per person by age and swap sheets when someone finishes early. For a rainy afternoon, print the whole page: sixteen boards of warm up and fourteen of real work is a genuinely full afternoon.

Where to go from each rung

  • If the warm up boards are the right level, the easy mazes page holds fifty of them.
  • If the hard rung is where you slow down, the hard mazes page continues with difficult, very hard and advanced boards.
  • If the expert rung falls too, the extreme mazes page starts where this one stops, with boards two thirds bigger again.
  • And to make a board nobody has ever solved, the Maze Maker generates a fresh maze at any of these sizes, with its solution, numbered.

The fine print that is not fine print

Everything is a free PDF that ends on its own solution page. Every maze has exactly one route, machine-checked before publication. Pages are true A4 with a 15mm margin, so US Letter printers do not crop them, and the right print setting is always 100 percent or actual size, never fit to page. The catalogue number at the end of each description identifies that exact board forever.

How to use these sheets

  1. Pick a sheet and press Print. The file is a PDF sized for A4 and Letter paper.
  2. Print it in black and white at normal quality. None of these sheets need colour ink except the colour by number pages.
  3. Keep the answer page for yourself, or print it too if you want to check the work later.

How to Print These Sheets

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