How to Solve a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube for Beginners

There is no easy way to solve a Rubik's cube. There are dozens of different ways that are all complicated. The way that I will be showing is personally the easiest way that I have come upon in the years of owning a Rubik's cube.
This way of solving the 3x3x3 cube will be something fast to learn and even to memorize if you put effort into it. Even when following the steps that will be shown in this instructable you WILL get lost at times because no one will ever start with the same patterns. Make sure to read and look at every possible result that can happen in each step. I hope you don't get lost in the algorithms, Good Luck!!

• 3x3x3 Rubik's cube

First of all to start solving the Rubik's cube you will have to learn the movement language that I use to solve this cube. I will not be showing the whole language but only the movements that are involved in the steps.

Have in mind that to teach you this language I will show it as if you were holding the Rubik's so that the white center is facing upwards.

The Rubik's cube has three layers, three rows, and six faces if you're looking at it straight from one side. Remember this because a lot of the steps will be guiding you to rotate a layer, row, or face.

The final thing to keep in mind is that when I put the number 2 after one of these letters it means to perform the action twice, Kind of like using a number to the power of two. (when you do the action twice it doesn't matter if it's counterclockwise or clockwise it will end in the same position either way).

• R- rotate the right row upwards ( or clockwise )
• R'- rotate the right row downwards ( or counterclockwise)
• L- rotate the left row upwards ( clockwise )
• L'- rotate the left row downwards ( counterclockwise )
• U- rotate the top layer to the left ( clockwise )
• U'- rotate the top layer to the right ( counterclockwise )
• F- rotate the front face that is facing you to the right ( clockwise )
• F'- rotate the front face to the left ( counter clockwise )
• B- rotate the back face which is looking away from you to the right (clockwise)

Solving the white cross is a fairly simple step. ( the first step has no special instructions because as stated before there is no way I can know where your white pieces are located in your cube)

To start we will be looking for the location of the white centers( the pieces that have a white side and only one other side with a different color)

after you've found these pieces you will rotate the Rubik's cube around until these pieces form a cross around the yellow center that is located at the bottom face of the cube.

*The bottom face of this cube should now be looking like the first picture*

In this cross, locate the white center that has another side with the color red. After locating it, rotate the middle layer of the cube until the center matches with the white piece (look at the 2nd photo for reference). Once your cube looks like the second photo you will rotate that face twice. You should no longer have a cross with a yellow center. The white piece with the red side should now be located next to the white center at the top of the cube.

Repeat this process with the other white pieces until your Rubik's cube looks like the third and final picture in this step.

Solving the first layer is a little more complicated than making the white cross but not to worry because I will be using the Rubik's cube lingo in this one.

First, locate where each of your white corners is ( these pieces will have a white side and two other sides with different colors).

let us look at the red and blue faces first. ( we now know where the red and the blue faces are because we placed the center color for all the layers in the last step) The first thing to consider is that since we are looking at the faces with the colors red and blue we will be looking for a white corner that has those two colors apart from the obvious white. Once we find this corner we will want to move it to either the bottom right side of the red face( like shown in the first picture) or on the bottom left side of the blue face. It does not matter which of these two sides you can put the piece in as long as the white side of this corner is not looking downwards into the bottom layer.

once you have this white corner in either of these two positions you will perform the following algorithm. If the white corner is on the bottom right side like it is in the picture you will rotate the bottom layer to the left once, then use R'. Rotate the bottom layer back to where it was and do the same with the right row.

If the white corner is on the bottom left side you will rotate the bottom layer to the right and do L'. As mentioned before put the bottom layer back to where it was and then put the left row back to where it was as well.

do the same thing with the other three white corners and your Rubik's cube should now look like the final picture.

From here on out there is more movement using the lingo than anything else, this is because as we complete more of this cube we limit our moves more and more because a couple of mistaken moves can cause the reset of your whole Rubik's cube.

For this step, we will be filling the corners of the middle layer. We will be looking at the orange and green faces this time. As you can see in the photos we are trying to fill in the corner to the right of the orange center and the left of the green center. Look for a centerpiece that has the colors green and orange. This piece can be located anywhere in the bottom layer and in the corners ( you can even get lucky and already have this corner in place) When you find it you can rotate the bottom layer to put it in one of two places. The first one is the one in the photo where the orange side is looking out and the green is looking down. The second way you can place is under the green center if the piece has the green side looking out and the orange side looking down.

If you want to place the piece on the right side like we want to do in the picture you will have to do the following: rotate the bottom layer to the left, do R', put the bottom layer back to where it was, and then do R. You should now be missing a white corner in the top. after this, you will rotate the whole cube so that the face that has the white corner in the bottom is looking at you (in this case the white corner is on the bottom left side). You will rotate the bottom layer to the right and do L'. Bring the bottom layer back to where it was and do the same with the left row. your Cube should now look like the second picture.

If you want to place the piece on the opposite side you would need an orange/blue piece not an orange/green like the one we just used. After you have the right piece in position you will perform the same two steps but the other way around.

Do the same with all the there corner pieces in the middle layer and you should now be successfully done with the first two layers.

The yellow face has a lot of steps but personally, this is one of the easiest. Once you've completed the second layer we will turn the Rubik's cube around so that the yellow center is now pointing upwards, it will stay like this for the remaining of the solving.

Look at your Rubik's cube, the yellow face should look the same as one of the two first pictures(it's ok if there are extra yellows in the face as long as some of them are like the ones in the picture) If you don't have any of those shapes then do this simple algorithm while the yellow part is facing up and the orange part is facing you (for example ). *F R U R' U' F'. Keep doing this until you have either a yellow line or a hook form like in the pictures. When you have them all you are going to do is repeat the same algorithm until there is a yellow cross in the yellow face (again, it does not matter if there are extra yellow pieces around).

What we are going to do now is make what I call a goldfish( there is a chance that you already have this when you made the yellow cross)

To make the fish you are going to go to any side of the cross and perform this algorithm *R U R' U R U2 R'*. If it doesn't work the first time just keep trying with the same algorithm and you will get the fish-shaped form. Once you have the goldfish, position it so that the goldfish is looking at you and the fins are looking up and another on to the right. You will notice that there is a yellow piece in the 3rd layer that is positioned like the one in the 3rd photo or it can be right next to it around the corner. If it's around the corner you will do the same algorithm as before. After repeating the algorithm you should have it like it is shown in the picture.

Do this algorithm once more and the yellow face will be completed (remember to have the fish pointing outwards into your left arm)

We are closing to the end of this Instructable, the last two steps are straightforward and easy to get the hang of but a little annoying to memorize.

Your Rubik's cube should now look like the one in the first picture. There are a few other looks that it can have, for example, one of the colored faces( that is not white or yellow) might be completed, and one of the corners might look like the one in the second photo. Either way, there is one complex algorithm that we will be used for either of the outcomes that I've mentioned. Have the yellow facing up and any of the colored faces that don't include yellow or white pointing at you. perform the algorithm *R' F R' B2 R F' R' B2 R2* the algorithm might need to be performed twice before we are done with this step.

you know that you are done with this step when all sides look like the side in the second photo ( the one spot missing will be a different color for every side). Another thing to keep in mind is that one of the faces might be completed, don't worry if it is, this is helpful for the next step.

We are finally in the last step of this Rubik's cube!!

Your Rubik's cube should look like the photo above .

Like i said in the step before, this final step is straight forward and easy.

If you have a side that is completed be sure to put it to the back so it is point away from you, after you've done that you will perform this final algorithm

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

you might need to do this step from 1-3 times but after that you are completely done!!!

as I said at the beginning solving a Rubik's cube can get complicated but with a few attempts of this and you will get it right, try memorizing the steps so you can show of to your friends how amazing you are at solving 3x3x3s Rubik's cube