Mazes

Free maze puzzles in five difficulty levels. Play online with hints and timer, or print for offline solving. 1,500 unique mazes from 8×8 beginner grids to 50×50 Einstein-level labyrinths.

Mazes

8–12 cells. Wide corridors, few dead ends. Good starting point for kids.

Standard play. Timer runs. Hints available.

How to play

Goal: Trace a path from the start (S) to the end (E), moving only through open passages. No diagonal movement, no crossing walls.

Desktop: Click adjacent cells to move. Use arrow keys for faster navigation. Click any cell on your path to retract. Press Backspace to undo.

Mobile: Tap adjacent cells. Tap a cell on your path to retract to it. Swipe in a direction to move quickly through corridors.

Play modes

Classic

Standard play. Timer counts up. 3 hints available. Undo freely.

Timed Trial

Beat the clock. Fixed time per difficulty (2 min easy to 20 min einstein). 3 hints.

Challenge

No hints, no undo. Navigate the maze purely on skill and spatial memory.

Strategy guide

Beginner: The wall-following technique

Place your (imaginary) right hand on the wall and keep following it. In a perfect maze — one with no loops — this guarantees you reach the exit. It's not the fastest method, but it always works. Start with this on easy and medium mazes to build confidence.

Beginner: Work from both ends

Before tracing from start, look at the exit. Trace backward from E a few steps in your mind. If the exit area has a narrow bottleneck passage, knowing about it early helps you aim your forward search in the right direction. This is particularly effective on medium and hard mazes.

Intermediate: Dead-end filling

Before you start moving, scan the maze for dead ends — cells with only one entrance. Mentally block these off. The remaining open cells form a simpler graph where the solution path is more visible. On hard mazes with 35–45% dead-end density, this technique eliminates a huge portion of the grid.

Advanced: Bottleneck identification

Large mazes have natural chokepoints — narrow passages that the solution must pass through. Finding these bottlenecks divides the maze into smaller sections. Solve each section independently and connect them through the bottleneck. This is the key technique for expert-level mazes.

Expert: Tremaux's algorithm

For the largest mazes (Einstein level), Tremaux's algorithm provides a systematic approach. Mark each passage as you enter it. When you hit a dead end, backtrack along the same passage. At a junction, prefer unvisited passages. If all passages are visited, take the one you've only passed through once. This explores the entire maze without repeating any passage more than twice.

Einstein: Grid sectoring

On 40×50 Einstein mazes, divide the grid into four quadrants. Find the main corridors connecting the quadrants — these are the critical paths. Solve the connections first, then work each quadrant independently. Combined with dead-end filling, this makes even the largest mazes manageable.

Difficulty guide

Easy — 8–12 cell grids. Under 30 steps. A simple maze you can finish in a minute or two.

Medium — 14–18 cell grids. 40–70 steps. Dead ends appear, basic techniques needed.

Hard — 20–25 cell grids. 80–130 steps. Mazes for adults who want real resistance.

Expert — 28–35 cell grids. 150–220 steps. Requires systematic exploration techniques.

Einstein — 40–50 cell grids. 250+ steps. Kruskal-generated, no directional bias.

More mazes

More puzzles