A two-step problem is where word problems get genuinely hard: the answer to the first calculation is not the answer to the question. These free printable worksheets practice holding a problem across two operations.
If they get stuck
The answer key prints on a separate page.
The jump from one step to two is bigger than it looks. A child has to work out an in-between number, remember that it is not the final answer, and then do something else with it. Sheets here build stories that combine two operations in order — fill several equal boxes and then add a few more, or find a total across days and then take some away — so both steps are needed and neither can be skipped.
Numbers stay small so the reasoning stays visible. The difficulty is deliberately in the structure, not the arithmetic: a child who can add and multiply fluently can still be stopped cold by a problem that needs both, and that gap is exactly what this practice closes.
One question from a sheet like this one, worked a step at a time — with a sentence saying what just happened and why.
Two-step word problems, step by step