Draw a maze nobody can solve fast
You will design a maze with exactly one route from entrance to exit. Adding branches can accidentally join two routes, so checking the connections is part of the design.
- Brain
- Expert
- About 25 minutes
Grown-up needed: yes for selecting safe materials and supervising the setup
What you need
- Paper
- A pencil
- A partner
The rule
It must have exactly one way through.
How to do it
- Mark an entrance and an exit on the page.
- Draw a light intended route between them.
- Add walls along the route without blocking it.
- Add branching passages that stop without rejoining another passage.
- Trace every branch to check for unintended connections.
- Ask a partner to solve it and compare their route with your plan.
Why it works
A maze can be described as passages connected at junctions. If branches from the main route end without reconnecting, they offer choices but no second way to the exit. Joining two branches can create a loop and may introduce an alternative route. Drawing a planned path first helps organise the design, but it does not prove uniqueness on its own. Tracing the connections and checking every branch gives evidence that the entrance and exit have just one connecting route.
Make it harder
- Add two dead ends without changing the main route.
- Explain what happens when two branches reconnect.
- Create a labelled junction diagram to check the single-route claim.
Ask Taz
- Why do dead ends not add another route to the exit?
- Why can reconnecting branches create a loop?
- Why is testing one successful route not enough to prove uniqueness?
For grown-ups
Help inspect walls and junctions without solving every decision for the child. A partner finding a second route is valuable feedback for revision. Avoid promising that nobody can solve it quickly, since familiarity and strategy vary. Ask at dinner: “What evidence showed one way through, rather than only showing that a way existed?”
Taz is an AI and can be wrong, so stay close by. Read how safety works on Taz.
Show us yours
Film your hands and what you made, not your face or name. Ask a grown-up before posting anywhere else.
Questions parents ask
Is a wrong answer a failed activity?
No. Keep the first answer and compare it with the revealed objects, timing or rule. That comparison tells you what to change next. The activity offers one observation of a strategy, and it does not provide a general score for intelligence or ability.
How can a grown-up help?
Prepare the safe space and agree the rule before starting. Ask the child to describe the clue or strategy they used, then check the actual result together. Offer a shorter adapted version if needed and say clearly how it differs from the original challenge.
Should we share the result?
Sharing is optional. A discussion at home is enough, and the privacy line above applies to any online post.
More to try
See all Taz Challenges, or look through the science labs. One place for every why. Ask for early access at aitaz.com
Try it in 3D: Graph theory.