Grade 3 Subtraction Word Problems Worksheets
Start with eight focused practice problems, then use the answer key below to check the worksheet.
Practice Worksheet
Grade 3 Subtraction Word Problems Practice
Solve each problem. Show your work.
- 1.Sophia baked 220 cookies and shared 100 of them with friends. How many cookies does Sophia have left?
(word problem)
- 2.There were 817 birds in a tree. 61 of them flew away. How many birds are left in the tree?
(word problem)
- 3.Liam baked 757 cookies and shared 99 of them with friends. How many cookies does Liam have left?
(word problem)
- 4.Liam had 894 dollars and spent 696 dollars on a toy. How much money does Liam have left?
(word problem)
- 5.A store had 600 marbles in stock. They sold 471 during the day. How many marbles are left?
(word problem)
- 6.There were 967 birds in a tree. 917 of them flew away. How many birds are left in the tree?
(word problem)
- 7.Liam baked 666 cookies and shared 346 of them with friends. How many cookies does Liam have left?
(word problem)
- 8.A ribbon is 766 cm long. Mason cuts off 38 cm. How long is the ribbon now?
(word problem)
Show answer key
- Question 1: 120
- Question 2: 756
- Question 3: 658
- Question 4: 198
- Question 5: 129
- Question 6: 50
- Question 7: 320
- Question 8: 728
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About These Worksheets
Grade 3 students work through multi-step word problems involving numbers up to 1,000, including problems with extra information to filter out.
Subtraction word problems worksheets take computation skills and apply them to realistic scenarios: finding how many are left, how much more one quantity is than another, or how far apart two values are. Unlike straightforward column subtraction, word problems require students to first decide that subtraction is the correct operation — a step that trips up many students who default to whichever operation they practised most recently.
These worksheets deliberately include both "take away" problems (starting with a quantity and removing some) and "comparison" problems (finding the difference between two quantities), since research consistently shows that comparison subtraction is harder for students to recognize. Regular practice with both problem types builds a more complete and flexible understanding of what subtraction represents.
Skills Practised
- Identifying take-away versus comparison subtraction situations
- Translating written scenarios into subtraction number sentences
- Solving one-step and multi-step subtraction word problems
- Filtering out irrelevant information in longer problems
- Labelling answers correctly and explaining reasoning
Parent Tip: Ask "are we finding what's left, or how much more?" before your child starts solving — naming the problem type out loud builds the recognition skill that word problems require.