Puzzle Generators
57 tools
Sudoku and its variants, loop and path puzzles, shading puzzles, region and tiling puzzles, and the placement and deduction families — each one newly generated rather than drawn from a book, so nobody else has solved this one, and all but a few proved to have exactly one solution before you see it. They are made for paper, with the answer held back until you ask for it. The Printable Puzzle Pack builds a whole booklet in one go, up to 250 puzzles with a matching key.
Showing 57 of 57 tools.
Sudoku & Latin squares
- Sudoku GeneratorPrint a sudoku with exactly one solution — 4x4, 6x6 or full 9x9, four difficulties, with the answer key and a seed to reprint it.
- Binary Puzzle GeneratorFill a grid with 0s and 1s: equal numbers in every row and column, never three in a row, no two lines alike.
- Futoshiki GeneratorA Latin square solved from greater-than signs rather than given digits, with every clue proved necessary and exactly one answer.
- Skyscraper Puzzle GeneratorA grid solved from counts around the edge saying how many buildings are visible from each direction — with a few revealed cells where the edges alone are not enough — and exactly one answer.
- Sudoku Variant GeneratorSudoku with extra rules laid over it — diagonals, hyper boxes, anti-knight, non-consecutive, odd and even — one at a time or several at once, each proved to have exactly one answer.
- KenKen GeneratorArithmetic-cage puzzles on a Latin square, every one solved exhaustively to prove it has exactly one answer.
- Killer Sudoku GeneratorSudoku with cage totals in place of given digits: the grid is divided into cages, and only one grid fits them.
- Wordoku Puzzle GeneratorA full 9x9 sudoku with nine letters standing in for the nine digits, chosen so the finished grid's own diagonal spells a real nine-letter word.
Loop & path puzzles
- Maze GeneratorPrint a maze with exactly one route from start to finish — three textures on a square grid up to 40 by 40, or the same maze laid onto hexagons, triangles, rings or a picture outline up to 26.
- Train Track Puzzle GeneratorLay one line of rails from the entrance to the exit, matching the total beside every row and column — up to twenty-four at a time, ready to print as a booklet.
- Picture Maze GeneratorMakes a maze cut to the shape of a picture — a cat, a rocket, a leaf — that is still a proper maze, with one route through and every square reachable.
- Slitherlink Puzzle GeneratorPrintable Slitherlink loop puzzles with every clue proved necessary and exactly one closed loop satisfying them.
- Pearl Loop Puzzle GeneratorPrints a pearl loop puzzle — one closed circuit obeying every white and black pearl it passes through — with exactly one answer.
- Arrow Loop Puzzle GeneratorPrints an arrow loop puzzle — every square is shaded or on one closed loop, and each numbered arrow counts the shaded squares in its direction — with exactly one answer.
- Numberlink Puzzle GeneratorPrints a grid of numbered endpoints — connect each matching pair with a path that never crosses another, filling every square — with exactly one answer.
- Country Road Puzzle GeneratorDraw one loop along the grid lines that puts every numbered square inside it, where each number counts the inside squares it can see along its own row and column.
- Shingoki Puzzle GeneratorDraw one loop that turns at every black circle and runs straight through every white one, where each circle's number is how far its own two straight stretches run before the next turn.
Placement & deduction
- Minesweeper GeneratorPrintable Minesweeper boards proved finishable from the numbers alone, so no square is ever a coin flip.
- Logic Grid Puzzle GeneratorZebra-style puzzles where clues are sentences about who goes with what, every clue proved necessary and exactly one arrangement possible.
- Codebreaker Puzzle GeneratorA hidden code with worked feedback examples, using the exact-then-misplaced scoring rule that most implementations get wrong.
- Light Up Puzzle GeneratorAkari grids where every square must be lit, no bulb may light another, and only one arrangement works.
- Fleet Deduction Puzzle GeneratorGrids where row and column counts, plus up to a handful of squares given away — most often one or two, sometimes none — pin down exactly one arrangement of ships.
- Bridges Puzzle GeneratorHashiwokakero island puzzles where bridges never cross and every island ends up connected, with exactly one valid layout.
- Star Battle Puzzle GeneratorStar Battle grids with one star per row, column and region, no two touching — with the region shapes proved to admit only one arrangement.
- Tents and Trees Puzzle GeneratorTents-and-trees grids where every tree pairs with its own tent, no two tents touch, and the pairing is verified as a perfect matching.
- Stitches Puzzle GeneratorA grid cut into blocks, to be sewn together: one stitch across every border between two blocks, with the number of holes in each row and column given — and exactly one way to do it.
Shading puzzles
- Nonogram GeneratorPrintable nonograms whose clues are proved to have exactly one solution, and to be solvable without guessing.
- Mosaic Puzzle GeneratorPrints a Mosaic, where each number counts the shaded squares in its own block of nine, with exactly one answer.
- Kakurasu Puzzle GeneratorPrints a Kakurasu grid where a square's value is its position, with row and column totals that lead to exactly one shading.
- Aquarium Puzzle GeneratorPrints an Aquarium puzzle — a grid of tanks where water finds its own level — with row and column counts that lead to exactly one arrangement.
- Nurikabe Puzzle GeneratorNurikabe grids where each number is an island of that size, the wall is one piece, and no two-by-two block is allowed.
- Slant Puzzle GeneratorPrints a Slant puzzle — one diagonal in every square, numbers counting the ends at each corner, and no closed loop — with exactly one answer.
- Thermometer Puzzle GeneratorPrints a thermometer logic puzzle — mercury rises from each bulb without a gap, and the row and column totals say how far — with exactly one answer.
- Tapa Puzzle GeneratorPrints a Tapa grid where each clue counts the runs of shaded squares around it, with exactly one wall that fits.
- Hitori Puzzle GeneratorShade out the repeats without letting two shaded cells touch or the rest come apart, with a single answer proved by construction and by search.
- Room Shading Puzzle GeneratorPrints a grid cut into numbered rooms — shade each room to its count, keep the rest connected, and never let a straight run of unshaded squares cross three rooms — with exactly one answer.
- Visibility Shading Puzzle GeneratorPrints a grid where numbers count what they can see — shade squares so every number's line of sight matches, unshaded squares stay one piece — with exactly one answer.
- Magnetic Polarity Puzzle GeneratorPrints a grid already cut into dominoes — give each one a plus and a minus, or leave it blank, so no two touching cells share a sign and every row and column meets its printed count.
Number & word puzzles
- Kakuro GeneratorCross-sum puzzles where every run adds to its clue using distinct digits — every clue satisfiable by construction.
- Cryptarithm GeneratorSEND + MORE = MONEY puzzles where each letter stands for a different digit, every one solved and proved to have a single answer.
- Missing Operator Puzzle GeneratorThe numbers are given and the signs are blank: work out which combination of plus, minus and times reaches the target.
- Suguru Puzzle GeneratorPrints a Suguru — also called Tectonic — where each region holds 1 up to its size and no two equal numbers touch, with exactly one answer.
- Number Path Puzzle GeneratorPrints a grid to fill with 1 up to the number of squares, each number touching the next, with exactly one way to complete it.
- Codeword Puzzle GeneratorEvery square holds a number, the same number always stands for the same letter, and a few letters are given away to start. No clues and no word list.
- Number Block Puzzle GeneratorPrints a number block puzzle — every number says how many squares its own block holds — with exactly one answer and a size range chosen by measurement.
- Ripple Effect Puzzle GeneratorPrints a Ripple Effect grid where each room holds 1 up to its own size and equal numbers must keep their distance, with one answer.
- Consecutive Run Puzzle GeneratorBlack squares break each line into runs, every run holds consecutive numbers in any order, and no line repeats a number — each grid checked to have one answer.
- Hidden Groups Puzzle GeneratorSixteen words, four hidden groups of four, and red herrings that plausibly fit more than one group but validly fit only one — one or two on the gentle setting (about one gentle puzzle in eleven has none), three or more on tricky.
Region & tiling puzzles
- Dominosa Puzzle GeneratorPrints a Dominosa grid — a whole domino set laid out with the boundaries rubbed out — with exactly one way to put the boundaries back.
- Shikaku Puzzle GeneratorCut the grid into rectangles, one number in each, that number being its area — with the single answer proved before you see it.
- Region Tetromino Puzzle GeneratorPrints a grid cut into irregular regions — shade an L, I, T or S tetromino in each one, with no printed number anywhere — and exactly one answer.
- Rotational Symmetry Puzzle GeneratorPrints a grid of dots — draw walls so every dot sits alone in its own region, and rotating that region 180 degrees about its own dot maps it exactly onto itself.
- Tatamibari Puzzle GeneratorCut the grid into rectangles, one shape symbol in each — square, wider than tall, or taller than wide — with no four rectangles allowed to meet at a single point.
- Pentomino Tiling Puzzle GeneratorFit all twelve pentominoes onto a sixty-square board, each used exactly once, from two or three pieces already placed (occasionally one or four) — with exactly one way to finish.
More tools
- Printable Puzzle Book GeneratorBuilds a printable book of up to 250 sudoku, mazes, word searches, nonograms, fill-in crosswords and codewords — sectioned, ramped from gentle to hard, numbered front to back, with an answer key that matches.
- Pipe Network Puzzle GeneratorPrints a grid of pipe pieces to be turned until they join into one network with no loop in it — and every grid is checked to have exactly one answer.
- Sliding Puzzle GeneratorScrambled 8- and 15-puzzles that are guaranteed solvable, with the shortest solution length found by search on the smaller board.
Also useful for puzzles
- Word Search GeneratorMake a printable word search from your own word list, with a grid size and difficulty you choose and an answer key that is actually correct.
- Crossword Puzzle GeneratorBuild an interlocking crossword from your own answers and clues — numbered, laid out, with across and down clue lists and a solution grid.
- Fill-In Crossword GeneratorA criss-cross grid with no clues: the words are printed underneath, grouped by length, and the puzzle is working out where each one goes.
- Word Ladder GeneratorWord ladders where every rung is checked against a published word list, and the answer is the shortest path that exists.
- Cryptogram Puzzle GeneratorTurn a message into a substitution cryptogram, with letter-frequency aids for solving and a reveal for checking.
- Number Target Challenge GeneratorReach a three-digit target from six drawn numbers using each at most once — and every puzzle is solvable, because it is solved before it is offered.
- Connect the Dots GeneratorPrintable join-the-dots pictures with the dots numbered in order, from eight dots to ninety, with the finished picture on a second page.
- Tarsia Puzzle GeneratorCut-out triangle matching puzzles that fit together into one large triangle only when every touching edge is a question and its own answer, with the finished shape as the answer sheet.
- Magic Square GeneratorBuilds a genuine magic square of any size — every row, column and diagonal summing to the constant the size forces.
- N-Queens Puzzle GeneratorQueens placed so none attacks another, with the placement re-verified and the total number of solutions counted exactly.
- Tower of Hanoi SolverThe complete optimal move list for any number of discs, replayed against the rules and checked against the two-to-the-n bound.
- Cube Scramble GeneratorScramble sequences in standard cube notation with no redundant turns — no repeated face, and never three moves in a row on one axis.
Choosing the right puzzles tool
What these have in common is not the grid, it is the guarantee: a puzzle is solved from its own printed clues before it is shown, and thrown away if a second answer turns up, so one that cannot be reasoned to a single answer is never printed. That is what a generator can offer that a book of puzzles cannot — an endless supply at a chosen size and difficulty, with the answer worked out from the puzzle actually printed rather than typeset alongside it. Three pages are exceptions and say so themselves: Kakuro is built so that every clue can be satisfied and has many valid fillings rather than one, the Sliding Puzzle is guaranteed solvable rather than unique, and the Codebreaker is a hidden code to be guessed at, not a grid to deduce. The sections are divided by what you write down: a digit in a cell, a line along an edge, a shaded square, a wall between regions, or an object placed.
- Sudoku & Latin squares (Sudoku, Sudoku Variant, Killer Sudoku, Wordoku, KenKen, Futoshiki, Skyscraper, Binary Puzzle)
- You want a symbol in every cell under a rule about whole rows and columns — usually that each holds every symbol exactly once. Sudoku adds the boxes; the others swap the boxes for one more rule — a cage with a sum or a product, an inequality between neighbours, a count of the towers visible from the edge, letters in place of digits — and the Binary Puzzle balances noughts and ones instead.
- Loop & path puzzles (Slitherlink, Shingoki, Pearl Loop, Country Road, Numberlink, Train Track, Maze)
- You want to draw a line rather than fill in cells. Most ask for one closed loop that the clues pin down; Numberlink joins pairs, and a maze or a train track runs from one end to the other. The solved state is a route you can trace with a finger.
- Placement & deduction (Star Battle, Tents and Trees, Light Up, Stitches, Minesweeper, Logic Grid, Bridges)
- You are placing things — stars, tents, bulbs, stitches, mines, bridges — under a rule about how they may see or neighbour each other, or eliminating possibilities from a set of clues until one arrangement is left.
- Shading puzzles (Nonogram, Nurikabe, Hitori, Tapa, Aquarium, Thermometer, Kakurasu)
- The answer is which squares are filled and which are left. These tend to reward spotting a contradiction rather than counting.
- Number & word puzzles (Kakuro, Cryptarithm, Missing Operator, Suguru, Ripple Effect, Codeword, Hidden Groups)
- You want the deduction to run on arithmetic or on vocabulary rather than on position alone — sums across a run, letters standing for digits, numbers standing for letters, sixteen words to sort into four groups.
- Region & tiling puzzles (Shikaku, Tatamibari, Dominosa, Pentomino Tiling)
- You are dividing the grid rather than filling it — drawing the boundaries of regions so each one satisfies the clue inside it.
- Printable Puzzle Pack
- You want a booklet rather than one puzzle on screen. It mixes six kinds — Sudoku, mazes, nonograms and codewords from this page, plus word searches and fill-in crosswords — numbers them continuously, breaks the pages to your paper size and prints the answer key at the back.
- Word searches, crosswords and the solved classics
- These are in other categories on purpose, and linked under “Also useful” above. A word search or a crossword is laid out from a word list you supply, which makes it a worksheet and puts it under Classroom. A magic square, an N-Queens board or a Tower of Hanoi hands you the finished answer rather than a problem, so those are under Numbers.
Every tool in this category draws its results in your browser. How Generate Random works explains how the randomness is produced and what happens to anything you type in.