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How to Solve The Rubik's Cube https://rubiks-cube-solver.

com/how-to-solve/

How to Solve The Rubik's Cube


If you're reading this, you're probably holding a cube in your hand and already feeling bad
about yourself for needing to look up the solution. But don't worry! In fact, most of the “super-
human-intelligence beings” (a common misconception) who have solved the cube thousands of
times in their lifetimes were sitting as you are now. Whether you want to learn it to impress a
girl, because your friends bet you couldn't, or just to close the book on the biggest time waste
of your childhood by finally defeating it, this guide will take you through the simplest way to
conquer the puzzle.

The necessary steps are listed below. Click on a cube to jump on the page to the selected chapter:

An important thing to note is that this task is not a light one. It may require several hours of attempts. If
you'd rather just solve the cube in your hand and forget about it rather than being able to solve any
cube you're given, there are plenty of solvers available on the web. However, the satisfaction of holding
a completed Rubik's Cube in your hand and thinking “I did that, and I can do it again” is greater than
most, mainly due to the fact that the puzzle has been present in all our lives at some point. By the mid
1980's, an estimated fifth of the world's population had attempted to solve the cube. If you want to
stand out and say that you can defeat the puzzle, time and determination is a large factor.

Notation
If you're still reading, congratulations on not being

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put off by the time requirements! The first thing you


are going to need to know about solving the cube is
how the turns you make can be represented by
letters. Later on in this guide, you're going to need
a few algorithms. These are combinations of moves
that rotate pieces or just move them around to get
them where you want them. These algorithms are
written using this notation, so you can always come
back to this section if you've forgotten by the time
we need them.

There are six sides on the puzzle, referred to as Up – Down – Left – Right – Front – Back
faces, all of which can be turned individually: Up,
Down, Left, Right, Front and Back.

The notation for each of these is U, D, L, R, F and


B respectively. These faces can be turned in three
different ways/directions, however. These are:

– Refers to a clockwise quarter turn of


U
the upper face.

– Refers to a counter-clockwise quarter ?


U' F F' F2 R U L D
turn of the upper face
0/7

– Refers to a half turn in either direction


U2

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of the upper face.

That's it! For a visualisation of each of these turns,


click the letters in the animation widget.

There is an advanced notation which includes turns of the middle layers, rotations and “double” turns,
but these aren't needed for this guide. If you're still interested in learning them, check them out in the
advanced Rubik's notation.

Try it yourself! Take your cube and perform the following short algorithm:

U' L R2 D B' F U2 R'

The left, back, and lower faces might be confusing at first when trying to figure out the clockwise
direction, but with a little practice you'll get used to it.

Step 1: The Cross


The cross is the first step in the actual solution of the puzzle. This step can be a bit confusing at
first, so make sure you read this a few times whilst attempting it yourself. The image shows the
end goal of this step.

The centre pieces on each face, as you may have


noticed from playing around with the cube, can't be
moved to another spot, only rotated. So we can use
this to our advantage by building around the
centres. The best centre to build your first cross
around is the white centre, as many guides and
resources on the web start with a white face, so if
you need to look up some steps and examples

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elsewhere, your cube will look similar to the one


that is being used in other demonstrations.

The first thing you want to do is get the white plus


on top. You don't need to worry about the matching
centres (the orange and blue parts of the above
image) just yet.

For now, just get each white edge on the top layer.
It doesn't matter if the white bit is on top at the
moment. For example, your cube could look like the
one pictured. It doesn't matter if all of the white bits
are facing up or none of them are.

The next step is to flip some of the edges so all of


the white stickers face upwards, making a plus
(pictured above). If your cube already has the
cross, skip this part. Hold the cube so that one of
the edges that needs to be flipped is facing you.

Then apply this algorithm:

F R' D' R F2

This algorithm will flip the edge so the white part is


facing upwards. Do this for every edge until you
have a white cross on top.

Now you need to orient these pieces. Refer to the


next picture. As you can see, the orange piece

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matches the orange centre. Look at the edges on


your puzzle. You could have none matching, two
matching or all matching. If you have all four edges
matching the centres, your cross is solved. If you
have none matching, perform a U move, then look
around the cube again. You want to have at least
two matching. If none of them match, do another U
move. Repeat until you have either two or four
edges matching their centres.

Your goal is to have all four edges matching their


centres. If you have this, then the cross is solved. If
you have only two, then you could have one of two
cases. Either the two matching edges are adjacent
(next to each other) or opposite each other. If they
are adjacent, hold the cube so that the two solved
pieces are facing the front and left of the cube
(shown in the left picture), then perform:

R' U R U' R'

If the two matching edges are opposite one


another, hold the cube so that they are on the left
and right faces (shown in the right picture) and
perform the following algorithm to swap the one in
the back and in the front:

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R2 L2 U2 R2 L2

Your cross is now solved!

Step 2: The White Corners

Now you've done the edges on the white face, all that's left are the corners. This step is much
simpler, as it only requires one algorithm. The picture shows the end goal of this step.

Look on the bottom layer of the puzzle. You're


looking for the white-orange-green corner. There is
a 50% chance it will be on the bottom layer. Follow
the following steps depending on where the corner
is for you.

Bottom
If the corner is on the bottom of the puzzle, perform
the required D moves so that the corner is in the
position marked in pink on the picture. Perform this
algorithm as many times as is needed to put the
corner in its place:

R' D' R D

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Top
If the corner is on the top of the puzzle, hold the
cube so that the corner is in the position marked in
purple on the image, and perform the same
algorithm as before:

R' D' R D

Now the corner is on the bottom, so you can do the


above instructions.

Repeat this process for each corner until the top layer is solved. I suggest you to start with the corners
in the bottom layer because solving these first might pop out some white pieces from the top layer and
you might save a couple turns.

Step 3: Middle Layer Edges


You're 1/3 done (kinda)! You're done with all white pieces, so you can now flip your cube so
white is on the bottom.

Look for an edge that is on the top face and doesn't have yellow on it. There's a very small chance that
there won't be any, but there are instructions for that case below. Perform a U move so that the colour
on the front face of the edge is matching with the centre. There are two directions that the edge could
go, left or right.

Left: Right:

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If the edge needs to go in the gap to the left of If the edge needs to go in the gap to the right of
it perform the following algorithm: it do this:

U' L' U L U F U' F' U R U' R' U' F' U F

If there are no more edges left on the top layer, then they are probably either inserted in the right place
but flipped, or inserted in the wrong place. To get an edge out of somewhere it shouldn't be, just insert
one of the yellow edges into that slot. This should get the edge out and on the top layer, ready for you
to use the above instructions to insert correctly.

Repeat this process for all four middle edges.

Step 4: Yellow Cross


We're nearly there now. 2/3 of the puzzle is solved, and every piece left to be solved has yellow
on it somewhere. That's a good sign… right?

We're going to solve the top layer edges in two steps. In this step will orient all of the pieces so
that the yellow face is facing up for all of them. The next will move these pieces around and thus
solve the cube.

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Ignore the corners for now. You want to look at the edges only. Either none, all, or two of the edges will
already be oriented correctly (the yellow part is facing up).

These are the four possible edge positions that you can have:

Do this to transfrom to the next state:


F R U R' U' F'

If the edges are solved in a plus shape like the cross we made at the start (the last image), you can
skip this stage.

Beside the solved cross you can also have a “Dot”, an “L” shape or a “Line” as pictured above. To
transform the Magic Cube from one state to the other, you have to apply the following short algorithm,
watching out for the L shape and the line to be positioned as required:

F R U R' U' F'

If you are in a hurry you can speed up the process by doing two jumps at once with this:

F U R U' R' F'

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When you have an “L” shape, where the two yellow pieces showing are adjacent one another. Do the
required number of U or U' moves to get this L as shown in the picture: the corner that the two edges
trap needs to be in the top left. Then perform this algorithm:

F U R U' R' F'

If done correctly, you should now be looking at the yellow cross.

The third image shows the “Line” shape, where the two yellow pieces showing are opposite one
another. Make sure that the yellow bar (the two edges and the middle sticker) is horizontal, then do:

F R U R' U' F'

You should now be looking at four edges all oriented correctly.

For the “Dot” case shown in the first picture, just do either of these algorithms to get a different case.

Step 5: Sune and Antisune


Sune is a very simple algorithm that many puzzlers love due to its simplicity compared to other
algorithms that they may have had to learn. There are 7 different corner positions possible after
you have oriented the edges. Sune and Antisune are two of these, but we won't always get them
straight away.

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Refer to the image to see what they look like. Both


Sune and Antisune have one correctly oriented
corner. You might have two corners oriented or
none oriented. If you have all four already facing
upwards, you don't need this step.

To get to the case where you only have one


oriented corner, repeat the following algorithm:
When you eventually get the desired position, there
are two slightly different variations of it. For this, we
need to look at the front of the cube. The yellow
R U R' U R U2 R'
corner facing the front can be in two positions:
Either facing the front, or facing the right. In the first
image, it is facing the front. This shows you have
Sune. To solve it, just do the above algorithm one
more time, and you should have oriented all of the
top layer.

Antisune is indicated when the corner facing the


right, as shown in the second picture:

U2 R U2 R' U' R U' R'

Step 6: Finishing the puzzle


We're nearly there! Last part now.

Here, we're looking at the colours that aren't solved. There are 21 different cases for the top layer, but
we only need a couple of algorithms to solve them all. The first thing we want to find is headlights. Only

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2 of the cases don't have any headlights (one of


them is if you skip this step, and the cube is already
solved). For the one case without headlights, just
perform the algorithm below from any angle. This is
a better case because when you do the next step,
the cube will be solved already.

Sune and antisune Headlights are fairly simple to spot. Looking at the
image, we can see on the right hand side that the
orange edge has a green corner on either side of it.
That is a set of headlights. The left hand side has
two different colours on either side, so that is not a
set of headlights. It is very important to note that a
full bar (a blue edge has a blue corner on either
side of it, so all three pieces are blue) is also seen
as a set of headlights. This is only seen in one case
of the 21 though, so you won't see it often. If you
have a set of headlights on each side, ignore this
part and read the section titled “The U
Permutation”.

Headlights: two corners having the same colour on


one side

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You want to hold the cube so that the set of headlights is facing away from you (do the required number
of U moves so that the headlights aren't on the front, left or right). Then, do the following algorithm:

R' F R' B2 R F' R' B2 R2

You should now have either a solved cube or a pair of headlights on all sides.

The U Permutation

There are 5 different positions your cube can be in


now, one of which could be solved. The rest of
them have all four corners solved, so do the
required amount of U moves so that every corner is
in its right place. 2 of the 4 remaining possibilities
have a solved bar (as mentioned above, where all
three colours on that side are the same), and the
other 2 have no solved bars.

If you have a solved bar, put it at the back and do this algorithm:

R U' R U R U R U' R' U' R2

If your cube isn't solved, do it one more time, making sure the bar is still at the back.

If you don't have a solved bar, do the same algorithm from any angle. This will leave you with a solved
bar, so you can do the above.

Congratulations! You've solved the Rubik's Cube. Wasn't that hard, was it?

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This tutorial didn't help you?


Read the beginner's Rubik's guide or go to the Rubik's Cube solver and let the program calculate the
solution for you.

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