Mazes are usually a solitary pursuit. But then I added some Maze races, including an entire month of Maze Race options during January (Free book download available). This gave me a framework of how to have a maze race between 2 people. The basics: 2 people doing the same maze, starting at the same time and seeing who reaches the goal first.

By request, I have added a few new options to have TEAM maze races. Teams can be any size, but I started by designing a 4 person maze race maze. This means 2 people per team. Although the number of teams could be any even number !! So 18 teams of 2 people each also works, etc. Before we look at those new mazes let’s review the 6 Maze Race Rules.

Maze Race Rules

Place the printed maze face down
Solvers flip the mazes over when start is called
Solve the mazes with a writing utensil
Mazes must be solved from start to finish (no backwards solving is permitted) This is an optional rule and with large groups may need to be suspended since each solve may not be able to be monitored,
Once the maze is completed sit down your writing instrument and say “solved”
A neutral party checks the answer to confirm the winner.

Introducing : My Newly Designed 4 person Maze race competition mazes

I have designed mazes specifically for 4 person Maze Races ! How does the 4 person race work ? Well 2 teams of 2 sit across from each other and race the same maze at the same time. To give the teams more room each player has their own printed section of the maze. Player 1 solves their section of the maze with guidance from Player 2. To add complexity there are 3 possible goals for Player 1. Player 2 should help guide them to the correct goal that will help Player 2 solve their section of the maze !

I have designed 3 different 4 person maze types. Let’s have a look:

Standard 4 Person Maze Race

In Part 1, Player 1 on each team must solve to either A B or C. While this is happening Players 2 must help guide Player 1 on which goal they should aim for. Once player one draws a line to A,B, or C, Player 2 starts their maze from that same letter and continues to solve the maze ( NEW RULE Player 2 may not draw on their maze until Player 1 is complete)…. IF it is later found that Player 1 has picked the incorrect goal (ABC), they must start their portion of the maze again ! The winning team is the one that completes the total 2 page maze first !

4 Person Maze Race Part 1 — Standard 4 Person Maze Part 1

Grid Maze 4 Person Maze Race

Same rules as above, just in the Grid Maze format.

4 Person Grid Maze Race Part 1 — **Grid Maze 4 Person Maze Race part 1**

4 Person Grid Maze Race Part 2 — **Grid Maze 4 Person Maze Race part 2**

Arrow Maze 4 Person Maze Race

A bit of a change in solving the race here. This maze is really about speed more than anything. There are MULTIPLE possible solutions for an Arrow Maze so expect different final paths between the two teams ! I do suggest using a thicker writing utensil to race these like a black marker as a pencil can have trouble writing on all the black arrows. Since wrong turns become loops in an Arrow Maze you will also have a few wrong turns in a correct solution.

Want to give it a try ? Download the 3 maze / 6 page file here:

Download the mini booklet

Want to see more of these mazes ? Let me know ! Have an idea ? Make a request !

Other posts that may interest you:

The Top 12 Maze Generation Websites

The Largest Arrow Maze in the world (probably)

The 12 Best Maze / Labyrinth Movies of All Time

Mazes are usually a solitary pursuit. But if you are a competitive person I have some ideas for you that will make your maze solving competitive - Maze Races ! Simply put, a maze race is a race between multiple people to see who can solve the maze the fastest. Let’s look at how a maze race works.

HOW TO HAVE A MAZE RACE

Select a maze - Ideally this will be an easy to medium difficulty maze. A difficult maze will take too long to complete and tension and speed will wane as the time passes. You want the maze used to be able to be solved quickly to add some drama to the competition. I also suggest a black and white maze (or grey). I have found that a maze printed in color being solved with a pencil can be problematic. Really it depends on your printer, but if the color has a glossy finish it’s a problem.
Print the maze - Although it is possible to race mazes digitally in theory, the best way to race is with printed mazes. Many online mazes are not able to be solved ‘on screen’ so paper solves this issue. Print as many mazes as there are racers.
Follow these 6 maze race rules - Ideally you want steps 1 and 2 above to be done by a neutral party. This prevents a solver from giving the maze a glance and pre solving a portion of it beforehand.
1. Place the printed maze face down
2. Solvers flip the mazes over when start is called
3. Solve the mazes with a writing utensil
4. Mazes must be solved from start to finish (no backwards solving is permitted) This is an optional rule and with large groups may need to be suspended since each solve may not be able to be monitored.
5. Once the maze is completed sit down your writing instrument and say “solved”
6. A neutral party checks the answer to confirm the winner.

How to Have a Maze Team Waterfall Race

A maze waterfall race is simply a race between two teams with an equal number of people. You use the same 6 rules as above except for rule #2. Instead of solvers flip the mazes over when start is called this becomes - the first solver flips over their maze when start is called. When they are done and say solved, only then can the next person on the team flip over and start their maze. This means only 1 person at a time is solving a maze on a team. If you want to make sure this is adhered to, give each team ONE writing utensil which must be passed from player to player as a maze is completed. Additional optional rule - no helping. You should use a different maze per slot on each team, because if you use the same maze for all competitors, once one solver on a team solves the maze, the temptation to see their work for clues is strong.

Some additional ideas to make the races even more competitive:

Solve 3 different mazes - For a bigger challenge place 3 different mazes in front of the solvers (they may solve them in any order they choose). The winner is the first to complete all 3 mazes correctly. This is better for large groups that are maze racing. A large group racing only 1 maze will most likely have a very close finish.
Solve 3 different maze types - Same as above but using 3 different types of maze constructions. I suggest one standard maze, a puzzle maze and an arrow maze. Each construction is solved in slightly different ways and presents a different challenge for the solvers.

Introducing : My Newly Designed 2 person Maze race competition mazes

I think all of the options work well above, but if that is still not quite what you are looking for I have designed mazes specifically for 2 person Maze Races ! So far we have the prototype example below, but I hope to add new versions and a dedicated section of the website once I have made enough ! How does the 2 person race work ? Well I have designed a maze on half the page ending in the center. I then copy that exact same maze on the top of the page inverted also ending in the center. This makes a page where 2 people sitting across from one another can race the same maze on the same piece of paper at one time ! Both are trying to reach the same center goal from different directions. I have made these to be printed on letter size paper, but the larger the paper they are printed on the better.

Some tips: 1. Consider taping this down to a table. In the rush and excitement of solving the maze can easily be moved…people get upset. 2. If this IS done, cover the maze by putting another piece of paper over the maze before the start so neither person can “pre-solve”. 3. Decide beforehand if the non writing hand can be on the table. Some players tend to want to block what they are doing from the other player. I suggest NO blocking the other persons site.

2 person Racing Maze - rectangle — 2 person Racing Maze

Single person Maze races

My attempt to make a maze race game for 1 person was the golf game mazes. How do these mazes work ? Well, like the game of golf your goal is to get the lowest score possible. The faster you solve a maze, the lower your score is. Each maze has a time and score printed on the page. In the example below, solving the maze in 30 seconds or under gets you a score of 3, etc.

timed golf hole themed maze — golf game maze hole#2

This particular golf game as you can see sets scores with a range of times. So someone solving in 33 seconds and another in 42 seconds would tie. However, this can of course be adjusted so the raw time determines the winner. The scorecard was set-up specifically for one person challenges. Scoring well on the example above is often a case of luck in some of your early path choices. This is because the wrong pathways purposely do not dead end for a longer time than normal. Try for yourself and you should notice that wrong turns are not as apparent in the maze quickly.

Additional Maze Competition Ideas

Challenge yourself with any maze just by timing yourself to see how quickly you can solve it. Unfortunately, once you try to solve a maze, you’ll need to set it aside before trying to beat your score as the correct solution will come too easily.
Add some puzzles, math or word games into the race. I have a word puzzle book with 151 different word puzzles. While I mention missing maze types together for a competition, there is no reason you can’t mix in some real schoolwork. This gives a competition the added difficulty of using both speed, knowledge and accuracy to determine a winner.

Here is an example of what a 1 page sheet might look like for kids. Although any time you are making one for children it takes skill to line up the different subjects age appropriateness correctly. But if you are a teacher this should be much easier for you !