Maze Solver — Find the Shortest Path

Generate a random maze or draw your own, then watch the solver trace the shortest path from the green start to the red finish. Everything runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded.

How to Use the Solver

Hit Random Maze for a fresh maze, or build your own: click a cell to add or remove a wall, and click-and-drag to paint several at once. The green corner is the start and the red corner is the finish. Press Solve and the shortest route lights up in amber, with its length in steps. Clear empties the grid so you can draw a maze from scratch.

How the Solver Works

The solver treats the maze as a grid of open cells and walls and runs a breadth-first search outward from the start, exploring every reachable cell in rings of increasing distance. Because breadth-first search reaches each cell by its shortest route first, the moment it touches the finish it has found the shortest possible path — which it then traces back and highlights. If the finish can't be reached, it says so. It all runs on your device, instantly.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I use the maze solver?
Press Random Maze for a fresh maze, or draw your own by clicking and dragging to add or remove walls. The start is the green corner and the finish is the red corner. Press Solve to trace the shortest path between them.
Can I draw my own maze?
Yes — you can draw your own maze by clicking a cell to toggle a wall, or clicking and dragging to paint several at once. Clear empties the grid so you can build a layout from scratch. Press Solve and the shortest route through your own maze is traced for you.
Does it find the shortest path?
Yes — the maze solver always finds the shortest path. It uses breadth-first search, which explores the grid one ring of cells at a time and so reaches the finish in the fewest possible steps. The length of that route is reported in steps once the search completes.
What if there's no way through?
If walls completely block the route, the maze solver reports that no path exists. That is a quick way to check whether a maze you drew by hand is actually solvable. Clear a wall or two and press Solve again to reopen a route.
Is anything uploaded?
No — nothing you draw is uploaded. The maze and the search run entirely in your browser, so no grid is sent to a server. Closing the tab clears the maze completely.

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Add This Maze Solver to Your Website

Put the Maze Solver on your own page — free, no sign-up, no watermark. It runs entirely in your visitors' browsers. Copy the snippet and paste it into your page's HTML.

The credit line under the widget links back to LK Forge — please keep it so others can find it too.