THE IDEA: A ROUTE FROM THE HUB TO THE RIM
A Circular Maze is a set of concentric rings, each sliced into segments, with walls between some of them. You move from one cell to a neighbour only where there's an open gap — and here a neighbour can be inward (toward the centre), outward (toward the rim), or around the ring either way. Never through a wall. Your job is to link a single unbroken route from S at the hub to F on the outer rim.
Three rules, that's the whole game:
- Start at the hub (S), finish on the rim (F). Both cells are fixed; your route has to connect them.
- Step through open gaps only. Two cells can sit right next to each other — across a ring or around it — and still be blocked by a wall. Adjacency isn't the same as a passage.
- One continuous route. If a corridor dead-ends, back up and try another branch. There's always exactly one way through.
Don't let the round shape throw you — it's an ordinary maze that someone bent into a circle. The skill is exactly the same: spotting where the maze actually asks you to choose.
LET'S ACTUALLY SOLVE ONE — STEP BY STEP
Here's a real Circular Maze — 4 rings, 8 segments each. S is the start at the hub, F is the finish out on the rim. We'll trace a route from S to F, one stretch at a time.
The starting maze — S at the hub, F on the rim, walls in dark.
Step 1 — from S, follow the only way out.
Look at S — there's only one open gap leading out of it, so there's nothing to decide. The next cell's the same, and the next. When a corridor is single-file — walls boxing it in on every side but the way on — you just follow it. That opening run carries us 4 cells outward for free, right up to the first real fork.
Step 2 — at a junction, you finally get a choice.
Here's a junction (ringed): more than one open gap, so now we actually choose. Two ways open up (highlighted) — one keeps heading outward toward the rim, the other carries on around the ring. These forks are the only places the maze asks anything of you — so this is where you slow down and look.
Step 3 — peek down each branch; drop the dead ends.
Glance down each branch before committing. Here's the catch a round maze loves: the branch that looks like it's making a beeline for the rim (the crossed cell) hits a wall almost immediately — a dead end, so it can't be on the route. The other one (still highlighted) carries on around the ring and keeps going toward F. Easy choice once you've looked.
Step 4 — follow the open corridor onward.
Take the branch that keeps going and you're back to following single-file corridors again — around a ring, then a step outward, then around — until the next junction, where you do the exact same thing: peek, drop the dead end, carry on.
Step 5 — arrive at F.
One unbroken route, hub to rim — solved. 👻
That's the whole puzzle: long stretches with no choice, broken up by a handful of junctions where you actually decide. Bigger circular mazes just mean more rings and more forks — the move never changes.
THE WHOLE METHOD, IN FOUR BEATS
Across the whole maze, you're only ever doing this loop:
- Follow the only way out. Single-file corridors have no choice — just walk them, inward, outward, or around.
- Stop at junctions. A cell with more than one open gap is the only place you decide.
- Peek down each branch. A branch that dead-ends can't be on the route — rule it out.
- Take the one that goes on, and repeat. Carry on to the next fork; back up if you hit a dead end.
Stuck? Back up to the last junction where you had more than one open gap and take the branch you haven't tried. A real Circular Maze always has a clean route through — you never have to guess.
A COUPLE OF FRIENDLY HABITS
- Work from both ends. Trace outward from S and inward from F on the rim. Dead-end stubs near each end get ruled out fast, and the two halves tend to meet in the middle rings.
- Outward isn't always right. The rim is the goal, so a passage heading straight out feels correct — but round mazes love to make you wind around a ring before the next way out opens. Read the junction, don't just bolt for the edge.
- Remember the stubs you've ruled out. Once a dead-end corridor is crossed off, don't wander back into it from another angle.
THAT'S IT — GO DO ONE
Follow the corridor, stop at the forks, drop the dead ends, carry on. It's the same calm route-finding as a square maze, just spun into rings — no sums, no rules to memorise, just a clean line traced from the centre out to a ghost waiting on the rim. Lovely for a quiet two minutes.