--- title: "Hard mazes: free printable with answers" description: "Free printable hard mazes with answers. Large grids, every dead end kept, and a route measured to make sure it crosses the page. No sign-up." source: "https://www.oncebooks.com/maze/hard" --- 1. [Home](https://www.oncebooks.com/) 2. [Printable mazes](https://www.oncebooks.com/maze) 3. Hard Free printable # Hard mazes A hard maze is not just a big one. These keep every dead end, use the carvers that make long winding corridors, and are measured after carving to check the route crosses the grid rather than running down one edge. MazeDesign Shape Output MazeCoding path A coding path turns the maze into a write-the-arrows worksheet. Grid size Ages 10+ Difficulty Start and finish Passages Dead endsSome loopsNo dead ends A true maze: one way through, and wrong turns stop dead. Stars to collect The route has to pass through every one. Corridors How the passages wind. Each one has its own texture to solve. Theme ClassicBoldSoftShadedNavyIndigoSkyTealEmeraldForestPlumBerryCrimsonEmberAmberCocoa **Customise colours** Walls Answer line Start, end & stars Corridor fill Page background Wall thickness Bold and chunky are the large-print settings. Start and finish marks Guide grid OffOn A faint grid behind the walls, for the youngest solvers. Style StandardClean Clean drops the title band and footer, leaving the maze. Generate mazePrint / save PDF Two pages: the maze and its answer. The answer is worked out from the maze itself rather than drawn alongside it, so it can never be wrong. Same engine as our KDP studio. ## Want the whole book? This makes one maze. Sign up to turn these settings into a full maze book for Amazon KDP: hundreds of graded mazes at any trim, as print-ready PDFs. We carry your shape, size and every other setting into the studio. [Build the full book](https://app.oncebooks.com/publisher-studio/maze/edit?from=maze&v=2&s=eyJzaGFwZSI6InJlY3QiLCJzaXplIjoibGFyZ2UiLCJhbGdvcml0aG0iOiJiYWNrdHJhY2tlciIsImRpZmZpY3VsdHkiOiJIQVJEIiwiZW5kcG9pbnRzIjoiY29ybmVycyIsImNvbG9yVGhlbWUiOnsidGhlbWVJZCI6ImNsYXNzaWMiLCJvdmVycmlkZXMiOnt9fX0) Free to build · pay once to export Preview The maze and its answer, as they print. Hide the preview - Maze Hard 1 Maze - Answer Hard · Solution 2 Answer Generate mazePrint / save PDF ## Why a big maze can still be easy Take a 40 by 40 grid, carve it, and put the entrance and exit near each other. The route is twenty cells long, the other 1,580 cells are decoration, and the page takes a minute. That is a big maze and an easy page, and it is the most common way a printable maze disappoints. The fix is to measure rather than assume. Every maze here is checked on two numbers: how much of the grid the route crosses, and how deep the deepest wrong turn runs. A page that does not clear the bar for its grade is re-carved from a new seed before you ever see it. ## Harder again If hard is not enough, the two settings that add the most are shape and placement. A hexagonal grid of the same size offers five ways on at a junction instead of three. Setting start and finish to "longest possible" puts them at the two furthest-apart points of the carving, which is the hardest honest placement a given maze admits. four ways out of every junction ## Rectangular A grid of squares with walls between them, an arrow going in at one corner and an arrow coming out at another. **How it solves** Each junction offers at most three ways on from the one you arrived by, so the choices stay countable and a wrong turn is quick to spot. It is the shape everyone pictures, and the one to start a child on. **Good for** Everyone. The default, and the easiest to read at any size. ## The other shapes - [six ways out of every cell Hexagonal A honeycomb of six-sided cells. The corridors run in six directions rather than four, so the paths slant as well as turn.](https://www.oncebooks.com/maze/hexagonal) - [three ways out of every cell Triangular Triangles pointing up and down in alternating rows, so the corridors run diagonally across the page.](https://www.oncebooks.com/maze/triangular) - [four ways out, but two of them curve Circular Concentric rings cut into wedges, with a gap in the outer rim to enter by and a small circle at the middle to reach.](https://www.oncebooks.com/maze/circular) - [four ways out, inside an outline Picture shape A square-grid maze carved to fill a silhouette: a heart, a star, a crescent moon, a cat, a tree.](https://www.oncebooks.com/maze/picture) ## Making a whole maze book? This page makes one maze. To publish a book on Amazon KDP, the [KDP maze maker](https://www.oncebooks.com/kdp-maze-maker) generates hundreds of graded mazes in one shape, at any trim, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior and a matching solutions PDF. Generate once, export unlimited sizes. ## More printable mazes - [Easy mazes](https://www.oncebooks.com/maze/easy) - [Mazes for kids](https://www.oncebooks.com/maze/for-kids) - [Giant mazes](https://www.oncebooks.com/maze/giant) - [Large print mazes](https://www.oncebooks.com/maze/large-print) - [Square mazes](https://www.oncebooks.com/maze/square) - [Hexagonal mazes](https://www.oncebooks.com/maze/hexagonal) [See every printable maze](https://www.oncebooks.com/maze) ## Questions **Are these hard mazes free to print?** Yes. Generate the maze above and print it with its answer, at no cost and with no sign-up. It is free for classroom, home and personal use. **Is there exactly one way through?** Yes. The maze is carved as a spanning tree, which means every square is reachable and exactly one route joins any two of them. The answer page draws that route, found by searching the maze itself rather than drawn alongside it. **Can I make a maze book to sell on KDP?** Yes. The free tool makes one maze. Publisher Studio generates hundreds of graded mazes in one shape, with an optional how-to-solve page, at any KDP trim, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior and a matching solutions PDF.