≈160 moves
Beginner
Layer by layer: the daisy, the cross, the sexy move. Long, but every algorithm is short and makes sense.
Textbook and solver
Let's solve it together
Turn the cube with your finger, read nine short chapters — and by the end of the evening you will solve it yourself. Already holding a scrambled one? Show it to us and we will walk through the solution, naming every trick.
- 43 quintillion positions
- 20 moves always suffice
- 7 steps for a beginner
Your browser can't draw 3D here — showing the net instead.
Drag a sticker to turn a layer. Drag beside the cube to turn the whole cube. Keyboard: U R F D L B, with Shift for the reverse.
Solved! 🎉
The textbook
Eleven chapters, from what's inside the cube to God's number. The cube in every chapter is alive — turn it, and solve the exercises yourself.
- 1 How the cube works Before you turn a single face, let's look inside — the cube has just three kinds of pieces, and every one of them has its own place. ✓
- 2 The language of turns Six letters, a prime and a 2 — that's all it takes to write down any solve. ✓
- 3 The daisy and the white cross Four white petals around a yellow heart, and your first layer is already under way. ✓
- 4 The white corners One move, repeated the right number of times, and the whole white layer is done. ✓
- 5 The second layer An upside-down T, two mirror-image algorithms, and two thirds of the cube are solved. ✓
- 6 The yellow cross Look only at the yellow — dot, L-shape, line — and let one algorithm carry you from pattern to pattern. ✓
- 7 Edges of the yellow cross The cross is already yellow — now each of its edges has to sit under its own center. ✓
- 8 Putting the corners in place The corners can still be twisted any which way — for now, all that matters is that each one sits in its own spot. ✓
- 9 The final twist The strangest step in the course — the bottom falls apart and then rebuilds itself, and that's not luck but a law. ✓
- 10 CFOP — how the champions solve The same layers, only in bigger blocks — the cross is planned in advance, pairs go in whole, and the last layer takes just two looks. ✓
- 11 God's number — how a computer thinks Forty-three quintillion positions, and not one of them more than twenty moves from solved — how we found out, and how a computer finds the way. ✓
Three ways to solve the same cube
The same scrambled cube can be solved in very different ways. Show yours and compare.
≈55 moves
Like the champions — CFOP
Cross, F2L pairs, OLL and PLL. The method behind seconds-long solves — with every case named.
≈20 moves
Like a computer
Kociemba's two-phase algorithm: close to the shortest possible solution. No human learns it, but it's mesmerizing to watch.