How to solve a 3×3 puzzle cube (beginner’s method)

The 3×3 puzzle cube – best known as the Rubik’s Cube® – looks impossible until you see that it is solved one layer at a time, from the top down. This guide uses the beginner’s method: you solve the white layer, then the middle layer, then the yellow layer, learning one short formula for each situation. Every formula below is shown on a 3D cube that starts from exactly the situation the step is about. Press play, or go through it one move at a time.

Before you start: how to read the moves

Hold the cube so one face points at you. Each letter names a face: R right, L left, U up (the top), D down (the bottom), F front and B back.

• A letter alone (R) turns that face a quarter turn clockwise, as you look straight at that face. That is why R lifts the front column up, while L takes it down.
• An apostrophe (R′, said “R prime”) turns the same face counterclockwise. It undoes R.
• A 2 (R2) means two quarter turns; the direction does not matter.

The six centers never move relative to each other, so a center tells you the color of its face for the whole solve. On the usual color scheme white is opposite yellow, green opposite blue and red opposite orange. Try each move here before you start:

Step 1: Make the white cross

Hold the cube with the white center on top. Your goal is a white cross: the four edge pieces with white on them sit around the white center, and – this is the part people miss – the other color of each edge matches the center on its side. Seen from the side, each finished edge and its center form a little “T” of one color.

Solve this step by thinking rather than with formulas: find a white edge, turn the bottom layer until it sits below its spot, and bring it up. Two cases come up again and again:

• The edge is in the bottom layer, directly below its spot, white facing down: F2 lifts it into place.
• The edge is in its spot but upside down (white facing you): F U′ R U flips it without disturbing the other cross edges.

Step 2: Put in the white corners

Keep white on top. Find a corner in the bottom layer that has white on it and look at its two other colors: turn the bottom layer until the corner sits directly below the spot between the two centers with those colors. Now turn the whole cube so that spot is at the front-right of the top layer, with the corner right below it, and repeat:

R′ D′ R D

Repeat it until the white sticker of that corner faces up – once, three times or five times, depending on which way the white sticker faces. It never takes more than five: six times in a row brings everything back to where it started. Some pieces of the lower layers move around while you do this; that is fine, because they are not solved yet.

If a white corner is stuck in the top layer in the wrong spot or twisted, hold it at front-right and do R′ D′ R D once to bring it down, then put it in as above.

Step 3: Solve the middle layer

Now turn the cube over, so yellow is on top and your finished white layer is at the bottom. From here on, yellow stays on top.

Look for an edge in the top layer that has no yellow on it. Turn the top layer until the edge’s front color matches the front center – the two make a vertical line. Then look at the edge’s top color:

• If it matches the right center, the edge goes down to the right: U R U′ R′ U′ F′ U F
• If it matches the left center, it goes down to the left: U′ L′ U L U F U′ F′

Both formulas keep your white layer and the other middle edges in place. If an edge without yellow is stuck in the middle layer – in the wrong spot or flipped – use either formula with it at the front to send it back to the top, then insert it properly.

Step 4: Make the yellow cross

Look only at the yellow edges on top (ignore the corners for now). You will see one of four patterns: a cross (skip this step), a line, an L, or just the yellow center – a “dot”. Use one formula for all of them:

F R U R′ U′ F′

• Line: hold it left to right, then do the formula once. You get the cross.
• L shape: hold it so the L points to the back and to the left, then do the formula. You get a line already left to right, so do it once more.
• Dot: do the formula once. An L appears; turn the top to bring it to the back-left and carry on as above.

Step 5: Match the yellow edges

Turn the top layer until at least two of the yellow edges match the centers on their sides (it is always possible). Then:

• Two neighbors match: hold them at the back and on the right, and do R U R′ U R U2 R′ U. It swaps the front and left edges and leaves the back and right ones alone.
• Two opposite edges match: do the formula once from any side, then turn the top again – now two neighbors match.
• All four match: go straight on to step 6.

Step 6: Put the yellow corners in their spots

A corner is in its spot when its three colors are the colors of the three centers around it – even if it is twisted and its yellow does not face up yet. Find such a corner, hold it at the front-right of the top layer, and do:

U R U′ L′ U R′ U′ L

The formula keeps that corner where it is and moves the other three around. Check, and do it once more if needed – after one or two goes all four corners are in their spots. If no corner is in its spot, do the formula once from any side; then one will be.

This formula twists corners as it moves them, which is why twisting them comes last.

Step 7: Twist the yellow corners

Keep yellow on top. Hold the cube with an unsolved corner at the front-right of the top layer and repeat R′ D′ R D – the same formula as in step 2 – until that corner’s yellow faces up. It takes two or four times.

Now the important part: the lower layers will look broken. Do not panic and do not turn the whole cube. Turn only the top layer (U) to bring the next unsolved corner to the front-right, and repeat R′ D′ R D on it. When the last yellow corner faces up, the lower layers come back by themselves. Turn the top layer to line it up, and the cube is solved.

Practice on a virtual cube

Scramble the cube and solve it with the buttons: each button is one move, and a prime button turns the other way. On a keyboard, press the letter of the face, with Shift for prime. Drag the cube to look at its other sides. The clock starts with your first move, and your best time stays on this device.

Common mistakes

• A white cross that does not match the sides. Each cross edge must match its side center too, or step 2 can never work.
• Turning the whole cube in the middle of step 7. Only the top layer may turn between corners, or the lower layers will not come back.
• Losing count of R′ D′ R D. Say the four moves as one word and count the words, not the moves.
• Prime the wrong way round. “Clockwise” always means as you look straight at that face – for D you look at the cube from below.
• Inserting a middle edge that has yellow on it. Edges with yellow belong to the top layer; leave them for steps 4 and 5.

What comes after the beginner’s method

Once these seven steps feel easy, most people learn CFOP, the method used by most fast solvers. It has four parts: the Cross; F2L, which pairs each white corner with its middle edge and inserts them together; OLL, which turns the whole top yellow in one formula (57 cases); and PLL, which puts the top layer in order in one formula (21 cases). A common bridge is to learn OLL and PLL two formulas at a time before learning them all.

Two facts to keep you going: the cube has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible positions, and computer searches have proved that every one of them can be solved in 20 moves or fewer (cube20.org, 2010).

Rubik’s Cube® is a registered trademark of Spin Master Ltd. zet4u is not affiliated with it.

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