Round Maze
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
Round mazes
Carved inside a circle, with the solution on its own page.
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Round Maze, Solution
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
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Four mazes, each a different size. Every one is a two-page PDF, the maze, then the solution on its own page.
Round maze, large print16 × 16 grid · EasyDownload PDF ↓
Round maze, everyday20 × 20 grid · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Round maze, longer24 × 24 grid · MediumDownload PDF ↓
Round maze, challenge28 × 28 grid · HardDownload PDF ↓Every sheet here is free to print as often as you like. If one saved you time, the tip jar is on Ko-fi.
A circle keeps about four fifths of the grid it is cut from: 208 of 256 squares on the Large print sheet and 616 of 784 on the Challenge. The pumpkin keeps about as much, the egg about two thirds, and the heart and the star about a third, so a circle leaves a maze more room to wander than almost any other outline at the same setting.
The way in is the top square of the flat stretch on the left of the circle and the way out the bottom square of the flat stretch on the right, so a round maze starts a little above the middle and finishes a little below it, where a square maze here runs corner to corner. In between, the route goes wherever the carve takes it: on the Large print sheet it touches both the top and bottom rows of the circle, while on the Everyday it never enters the top seven rows at all.
These are the shape to reach for when you want something that does not look like a worksheet. A round maze reads as a design rather than an exercise, which is worth knowing if it is going on a party table, into goody bags or up on a display board.
Each sheet is a two-page PDF, the maze and then its solution, and every maze has exactly one route through, with no loops to go around in. If none of the four sizes suits, the maker on this page takes a circle anywhere from twelve to thirty squares across.
How long is the route through the challenge round maze
The Challenge round maze has a route of 353 squares, the longest of the 64 ready-made mazes across the maze pages, and longer even than the 339 squares of the thirty-by-thirty square maze on the hard page. It fits that into a circle of 616 squares, so the route uses more than half of the maze, about 57 percent, and reaches from the row below the top of the circle all the way to its bottom row. Along the way it passes 33 forks, again more than any other ready-made maze, which makes it the longest single sitting of any maze to print here.
What it does not have is a long trap. No wrong turn on the Challenge circle runs more than 33 squares before it ends, so the difficulty is a long run of small decisions rather than one bad choice, and the squares, about 6.5 mm across, want a sharp pencil. That makes it the sheet to give an adult or an older child who wants a sit-down puzzle with a steady rhythm. The Longer round maze is the step below it: a 191-square route with 16 forks and squares about 7.6 mm across, though one of its wrong turns runs 89 squares.
Is a round maze too long for a first maze
A round maze makes a long first maze: even the Large print sheet, with squares about 11 mm across, has a route of 93 squares. It also passes 11 forks, and its longest wrong turn opens at the top edge of the circle, nearly three quarters of the way along, and runs 50 squares before it ends. The Everyday circle is no shorter. Its 95-square route has only four forks, but one of them, 12 squares before the way out, leads into a branch of 132 squares with a path of 89 into it. Corridor width and route length are separate things, and on the round sheets even the widest corridors come with a long journey.
For a child doing their first shaped maze, a shorter outline makes a gentler start. The Large print heart has a 42-square route and the Large print egg a 51-square one, both with corridors as wide as the circle's, and the eight-square First maze on the easy page is shorter still at 41. The round sheets come into their own once a child has finished a few of those and wants something that lasts. If something in between is needed, the maker on this page will carve a circle as small as twelve squares, which keeps 112 squares inside the outline.
Common questions
Which shape gives the longest puzzle for its size?
Of the shaped outlines, the circle: on the ready-made sheets its four routes come to 732 squares between them, against 552 for the egg, 470 for the diamond and 400 for the pumpkin. Size for size the carve can still tip it, and at the two smallest sizes the pumpkin, the egg and the diamond each beat the circle at least once, the Everyday egg by the most, at 116 squares to 95.
Why do round mazes feel less tedious than square ones?
The difference is in the outline rather than the dead ends: the longest unbroken stretch of outer wall on the Challenge circle is eight squares, against twenty-eight on the square maze of the same size on the hard page, so the edge keeps stepping in and out instead of running in one long line. Dead ends make up 10 to 13 percent of the squares on the four round sheets and 9 to 16 percent on the twelve square ones, so a round maze has about as many.
Are the round mazes made of rings, like a labyrinth?
No. They are cut from the same square grid as every other maze here, so the walls inside run straight across or straight down and only the outline is round, stepped one square at a time. A labyrinth in the classical sense is also a single path with no choices, while these have between four and 33 forks on the route.
Want to know when new printables go up?
New printables when they go up, mostly seasonal, a few times a year.