The Deep Maze
- Explorers
- Levels 1 and 2
- Maze
The deepest maze yet, a big 6×6. Find the one path from the start to the nest.
Trace a route from the start ring to the flag at the nest, one square at a time: up, down, left or right, never through a wall.
This one comes back on . You can solve it then, signed in.
Last set on . The answer stays inside Kiwimath, and here is why.
What the board shows
- The maze is 6 squares by 6, with 11 dark squares and 25 open ones.
- The ring starts in the top-left corner and the flag is in the bottom-right corner.
How are Kiwimath mazes played?
The ring marks the start and the flag marks the nest. A route goes one square at a time, up, down, left or right, never diagonally and never through a dark square.
Any route that reaches the flag counts, but the shorter routes are the satisfying ones, and comparing two routes is good counting practice.
Children who look ahead before moving, or who trace back from the flag, find the dead ends before they walk into them. Both habits are the start of planning, the skill behind a lot of later problem solving.
What it trains: Planning, spatial reasoning and patience.
Puzzles like this are part of olympiad preparation from the first classes. See the plan for Class 1 or Class 3.
What to ask while your child works
Questions like these keep a child thinking without giving anything away. They work for every puzzle of this kind.
- Can you trace a route with your finger before you draw it?
- How many moves is your route? Is there a shorter one?
- Which squares can the ring move to first?
Warm up with one like The Deep Maze
This warm-up is not the puzzle above, and its answer is below. It is a different puzzle of the same kind, made for this page, so your child can practise before The Deep Maze comes back.
Find the shortest route from the ring to the flag, moving up, down, left or right, never through a dark square.
See the warm-up answer
The route: right 1, down 2, left 1, down 2, right 2, up 1, right 2, down 1.
- This one winds. Working backwards from the flag helps: the flag can only be reached from the square above it.
- From the ring, go right one and down two, then step left to the edge and down two more to the bottom row.
- Go right two, up one to get round the dark square, right two to the edge and down one to the flag: 12 moves.
Questions parents ask about The Deep Maze
When can my child solve The Deep Maze?
The Deep Maze is due back as the Explorers puzzle of the week on Saturday 24 October 2026, opening at 6 PM India time. Your child can solve it then, signed in, with hints that open one at a time.
Who is The Deep Maze for?
It is an Explorers puzzle, for Levels 1 and 2, roughly Class 1 to 4. A younger child can try it with a grown-up reading the story aloud; the thinking matters more than the reading.