The White Cross
Hold the cube with the white center on top. Your goal is to place the four white edge pieces (white + red, white + blue, white + orange, white + green) around the white center so they form a plus sign (a cross).
Important: the colored side of each edge must line up with the matching center on the side faces. It is not enough to get white on top — the cross must be 'correct' on the sides too.
Pro tip: find a white edge, rotate the Down face until the side color lines up with its center, then rotate that face upward 180°. Repeat for all four edges.
First Layer Corners
With the white cross still on top, look for white corner pieces in the bottom layer. Each corner has three colors, one of which is white.
Rotate the Down face until the corner sits directly below where it belongs (between its two matching side centers). Then, depending on which side the white sticker is facing, apply one of three short sequences, or simply repeat the trigger 'R' D' R D' until the corner snaps in.
When you are done, the entire Up face will be white, and the top row of each side face will match its center color.
Second Layer Edges
Flip the cube over so the solved white layer is now on the bottom. Look at the Up layer for an edge piece that has no yellow on it — this piece belongs in the middle layer.
Match the top color of the edge with its center by turning U. Now the piece will need to go either to the left middle slot or the right middle slot.
Use the 'Right' and 'Left' insert algorithms (below). If every edge in the top layer already has yellow, but the middle layer still has unsolved edges, push the stuck edge up with one of the two algorithms and try again.
The Yellow Cross
The top (yellow) face will be in one of four states: a dot (no yellow edges), an L-shape, a horizontal bar, or a full cross. You only need one algorithm to move from each state to the next, applied with the correct orientation of the top face.
Bar case: hold the bar horizontal before executing. L-shape case: hold the shape in the top-left 2×2 corner before executing.
Repeat the algorithm until a yellow cross appears. It does not matter if the cross pieces are 'correct' relative to the side centers — just get the plus shape for now.
Orient Last Layer (OLL)
You now have a yellow cross, but some corner stickers are still not yellow. Your goal is to make every sticker on the Up face yellow — the side colors can be in any order for now.
There are 57 OLL cases in total, but for beginners a single 'Sune / Anti-Sune' trigger (plus its mirror) will orient all the corners after a few applications, provided you hold the cube with the yellow corner stickers in the top-left of the U face.
After a corner is oriented, do NOT re-orient the whole cube — just turn U to bring the next un-oriented corner into position, then run the trigger again.
Permute Last Layer (PLL)
The entire Up face is now yellow, but the pieces are still shuffled relative to the side centers. First, permute the corners so the side colors line up with the centers (A-perm). Then permute the remaining three or four edges (U-perm).
Beginners typically only need three PLL algorithms for this step: Aa-perm (swap three corners in a triangle), T-perm (swap two adjacent corners + two adjacent edges), and Ua-perm (cycle three edges).
When the last edge clicks home, the cube is solved. Congratulations — you solved a Rubik's Cube!
Now practice it!
Open the Play Cube page and try the beginner method on a real scramble. With a little practice most beginners reach a 3–5 minute solve time, and from there you can start learning finger tricks, look-ahead, and advanced methods like CFOP to break the 1-minute barrier.
Now practice it!
Open the Play Cube page and try the beginner method on a real scramble. With a little practice most beginners reach a 3–5 minute solve time, and from there you can start learning finger tricks, look-ahead, and advanced methods like CFOP to break the 1-minute barrier.
Go to Play Cube