Mazes are the simplest puzzle to generate and the easiest to get subtly wrong — mostly because two mazes at the same size can differ enormously in how hard they actually are.
1. Size it for the solver
Maze size runs from 10×10 to 32×32.
- 10×10 — ages 3–5. Following a line without lifting the pencil.
- 14×14 — ages 6–8. Dead ends become the point.
- 18×18 to 22×22 — ages 9–12. The solver starts planning ahead.
- 26×26 to 32×32 — teens and adults. Several minutes of work.
Maze size by age has the reasoning behind each of those.
2. Choose a shape
Four shapes: Rectangle, Circle, Diamond and Triangle. The non-rectangular ones mask cells out of the grid, which makes the maze look more interesting and shortens the path — a Circle at 20×20 is easier than a Rectangle at 20×20, not harder.
If you want a themed sheet, shape is the cheapest way to get one. If you want difficulty, size is the lever.
3. What happens when you press Generate
Not one maze — twenty-five. Each is measured, and the one with the longest solution path is kept.
This exists because a single generated maze is wildly inconsistent. At the smallest size, solution length ranged from 65 to 167 cells, so an 'easy' maze could be harder than a 'medium' one. Best-of-twenty-five narrows that spread to about 1.3× and makes the level mean something.
The entrance is placed at a random point on the outer edge, and the exit is the edge cell furthest from it through the passages. So the entrance moves every time rather than sitting in the top-left corner of every maze in your book.
4. Style and print
Wall thickness sets how heavy the lines print. Thicker walls suit younger children and photocopiers; thinner suits a dense adult maze.
Give a maze the full width of the page. A maze printed small is not harder — it is a maze whose corridors are narrower than a pencil tip, and children give up for a reason that has nothing to do with the puzzle.
The trick
Put a hand on one wall and never take it off, and you will reach the exit of any ordinary maze. We tested it against ours at every size: it solves 100% of them.
There is no setting that defeats this, and any tool claiming otherwise is worth checking. Once a child has worked it out, a maze is no longer a puzzle for them — which is a good moment to hand them a cryptogram instead.
