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Printable puzzles, compared

These five generators produce very different activities, and the word hard means something different in each. The table sets out what each one needs from you before it can print, what its difficulty setting actually changes, and what comes out alongside the worksheet.

Decision table

Which puzzle to print

Each entry describes what the generator does, taken from its own options and output rather than from a general description of the puzzle type.

Generator Activity What you supply What difficulty changes What else is in the PDF
Sudoku Generator Pure deduction on a single grid, with no reading required. Nothing. The grid is generated and checked for you. How many starting clues remain: 40 on easy, 34 on medium, 28 on hard. Optional answer pages, grouped after all the puzzles so they can be withheld. One to four puzzles per PDF.
Printable Maze Generator Pencil tracing rather than reading or arithmetic. Nothing. Walls and the route are generated together. How strongly the path prefers to continue straight, weighted 8 on easy and 3 on medium. On hard the weight is 1, meaning going straight gets no added preference over turning. Optional solution pages tracing the route. One to four mazes per PDF, on a 9, 15, or 21 cell grid.
Word Search Generator Visual scanning of a letter grid. A word list: one of eight ready themes, or your own, up to 18 entries. Which directions words may run: two on easy, four on medium, all eight including backwards on hard. Optional answer page showing the grid with the words marked, plus the word bank. Grid of 12, 15, or 18 cells.
Word Scramble Generator Spelling and letter-order work. A word list: one of eight ready themes, or your own, up to 18 entries. Easy keeps each word's first letter in place and shows it as a hint; medium keeps the hint only; hard removes the hint and shuffles the order of the words. Optional answer page listing the solutions. One worksheet per PDF.
Bingo Card Generator A game rather than a puzzle, and the only one here that needs someone to call the prompts. A prompt list: one of seven ready themes, or your own. With the free centre square left on, a 3 by 3 card needs 8 prompts and a 5 by 5 needs 24; a 4 by 4 has no centre square to free and needs all 16. No difficulty setting. Grid size changes the number of cells on a card and the number of prompts the list has to supply. No answer key, because no card is correct. An optional caller checklist lists the whole prompt pool. One to six differently shuffled cards per PDF.

Reading the table

Four differences worth knowing before you print

These are the distinctions that decide which generator fits, and they are easy to miss when the five pages are viewed one at a time.

Two need nothing from you, three need a list

Sudoku and maze print straight away. Word search, word scramble, and bingo need content: pick a ready theme or paste your own words. That is also what makes those three usable for a specific lesson, since the vocabulary can be yours.

Difficulty is not one scale

Hard removes Sudoku clues, makes maze corridors turn more often, lets word search hide words backwards, and takes the first-letter hint away from a scramble. Two sheets both marked hard are not comparable, so judge each generator's levels on their own.

Bingo is the one that needs more than one page

The other four print a sheet that can be worked alone or together, as you like. Bingo produces up to six cards that draw from the same pool in a different order, and someone has to call the prompts, which is why it has a caller checklist instead of an answer key: there is no single correct card.

The variation number is in the page address

All five encode their variation in the URL, so the link reproduces the exact sheet, including the answer pages. Sudoku is the only one where you can type a number directly; the other four regenerate with a button, and the new number appears in the address.

Related reading

Reading for printable puzzles