Illustrated guide
How to Draw a Maze
Make a solvable hand-drawn maze in three passes. Use a blank grid, pencil, and eraser; plan the path before the walls so the puzzle has a way out.
Download a blank grid template1. Draw the one route that must work
Mark an entrance and exit at opposite edges. Draw a winding line through adjacent grid cells. Leave room between turns; do not cross the line or jump over a cell.
2. Branch into dead ends
Add short branches off the route. Stop each branch before it rejoins the route or another branch. This keeps one clear way from start to finish.
3. Turn the sketch into a puzzle
Draw walls around the route and branches, leaving openings for the entrance and exit. Erase the colored planning lines, then solve your maze with a pencil. Reopen any blocked passage.
Two more ways to draw
Carve a connected grid
Start in one cell and draw a passage to an unused neighbor. At a dead end, backtrack to a cell with an unused neighbor. Never join a cell already visited. Choose the exit after all desired cells connect, then draw walls around the passages. This method makes a connected maze without loops.
Use nested walls
Draw two or three nested rectangles on the grid. Leave exactly one gate in each ring, on alternating sides. Put the entrance at the outside and the goal inside the smallest ring. Add short closed branches between rings, then trace the full route to check every gate.
For younger children, use fewer turns and wider corridors. Test the finished maze before sharing it.
Or create a printable maze with the generator