How to solve a Rubik's cube in 7 stages
This guide shows how to solve a Rubik's cube with the beginner method: you build the cube one layer at a time, using seven short algorithms. Each stage below has an animated example on a 3D cube (press Play), the moves, and what they mean in plain words. Above the guide, paint your own cube and you get the same stages worked out for your cube, step by step.
Reading the moves. Each letter is a face: R right, L left, U up (top), D down (bottom), F front, B back. A letter alone means turn that face a quarter turn clockwise, as if you were looking straight at it. A ' means counter-clockwise, a 2 means a half turn. y means turn the whole cube like the top face, so a new side faces you. The notation guide animates every move.
How to hold it. Every stage keeps the white center on the bottom and the yellow center on top. Centers never move relative to each other, so they tell you which color belongs on each face.
1. White cross
Bring the four edges with white to the bottom, around the white center, so that each one's other color also matches the center on its side. Take one edge at a time: turn the whole cube so the center of the edge's other color faces you, find the edge, and bring it to the bottom front. An edge in the top layer with white facing up goes down with F2 once it is above its center; other positions need a short setup first, and your walkthrough gives the exact turns for every case. Do not worry about the corners yet.
2. White corners
Turn the whole cube so the spot of the corner you want sits at the bottom front-right. Turn the top until the corner is right above that spot, then repeat the corner trick until the corner drops in with white on the bottom. It takes 1, 3 or 5 tries, depending on which way the white sticker faces. A white corner stuck in the wrong bottom spot comes out with one corner trick from that spot.
R U R' U'Corner trick: right side up, top to the left, right side down, top to the right.
3. Second layer
Now the middle edges, the ones without yellow. Find one in the top layer, turn the whole cube so its side color's center faces you, and turn the top until the edge sits above that center. If its top color matches the right center, use the right algorithm; if it matches the left center, use the left one. An edge stuck in the middle the wrong way is popped out with the right algorithm, then inserted like the others.
U R U' R' U' F' U FEdge to the right.
U' L' U L U F U' F'Edge to the left: the mirror image.
4. Yellow cross
Look at the top. You see a dot (only the center is yellow), an L shape, a line, or already a cross. Hold an L so it points to the back and the left, or a line so it runs left to right, and do the algorithm. A dot becomes an L, an L becomes a line, a line becomes the cross.
F R U R' U' F'Front clockwise, the corner trick, front back.
5. Yellow edges
Turn the top until two neighboring edges match their side centers, then turn the whole cube so they are at the back and the right, and do the algorithm. If only two opposite edges match, do the algorithm once from anywhere and look again.
R U R' U R U2 R' URight up, top left, right down, top left, right up, top twice, right down, top left.
6. Yellow corners into place
A corner is in place when it sits between the three centers of its colors, even if it is twisted. Hold a corner that is in place at the top front-right and do the algorithm once or twice; it moves the other three corners around. If no corner is in place, do it once from anywhere first.
U R U' L' U R' U' LTop, right up, top back, left up, top, right down, top back, left down.
7. Twist the yellow corners
Hold the cube still. With a corner that needs twisting at the top front-right, repeat the twist algorithm until yellow faces up (2 or 4 times). The lower layers will look scrambled: keep going. Turn only the top to bring the next unsolved corner to the front-right, and twist it the same way. When all four show yellow, the lower layers fix themselves; one last turn of the top solves the cube.
R' D' R DRight down, bottom counter-clockwise, right up, bottom clockwise.
How the walkthrough is made
The walkthrough for your cube is computed in your browser with exactly the moves taught here. We tested it on 2,000 random cubes: after every stage the pieces of that stage were checked, and every full solution was replayed on a separate cube model to confirm it solves the cube. The beginner method is long; on those cubes it took 157 turns on average, and the longest walkthrough needed 230. Faster methods learn more algorithms to need fewer turns.
Stuck on a cube you scrambled yourself? Enter its colors in the Rubik's cube solver for a short solution. When this method feels easy, the next step up is the CFOP method, and the 2x2 guide follows the same layer-by-layer idea on the smaller cube.
Solver tested . Found a problem? Tell us.
Questions
How long does it take to learn to solve a Rubik's cube?
It depends on how much you practice. The beginner method uses seven short algorithms; learn one stage at a time, and use the walkthrough on this page on your own cube until you can do each stage without looking.
Do I need to memorize algorithms?
Seven short ones, and two of them are mirror images: the corner trick, the two second-layer edge algorithms, the yellow cross, the yellow edges, the yellow corners and the corner twist. The white cross is solved by understanding, not memory.
Why did my cube get scrambled in the last stage?
That is normal. The twist algorithm R' D' R D messes up the lower layers while you twist one corner, and puts them back once all four corners are done. Only turn the top between corners, never the whole cube, or the lower layers will not come back.
What if the cube cannot be solved as entered?
Usually a sticker was painted the wrong color, often red and orange. The message says what is wrong, for example a corner that is twisted or two pieces that are swapped. If the colors are right, a piece on your real cube was twisted or reassembled wrongly; twist it back or take it out and put it in solved.
Is the beginner method the fastest way to solve a cube?
No. It is the easiest to learn. Speedcubers use methods with many more algorithms that solve several pieces at once. For the shortest solution of your own cube, use the 3x3 solver, which finds 22 turns or fewer.