Help the Fish Find the Treasure — Level 3

The top of the ladder, and the hardest maze on the site. Eighty-one squares, 55 changes of direction and 17 dead ends, on a grid of 144 cells. This is a sit-down-with-it page rather than a fill-a-gap one, and it is worth saying so before you print it: a child who has not finished a level 2 maze comfortably will find this one long rather than interesting.

Twelve cells across brings the corridors down to about one and a third centimeters. At that width the pencil work is genuinely part of the difficulty, so this sheet suits a child who has already stopped needing to rest their whole hand on the page to draw a straight line.

The way through runs 81 squares and turns 55 times, with 17 dead ends branching off it. The grid is carved so that exactly one route connects the start to the finish: no loops, no second way round, and no corner walled off from the rest. Every square can be reached, and a child who follows the route carefully will always get there.