Beginner's Method: Solve the 3x3 Layer by Layer

Complete Lesson 1 and Basic Notation. Distinguish edges from corners, judge turn direction from the specified face and read primes and 2 in order. Return to notation if needed; this course does not repeat the full piece and letter tables.

Unlike Lesson 1, hold white center down, yellow up and green front. Check the six-face diagrams first. A solved layer requires matching side rows, not just a white face; a complete solve requires nine matching stickers on each of six faces.

If you start solved and record R, U, F2, undo with F2, U', R'. Undo the last change first and reverse its direction. A half-turn is its own inverse.

Pattern lessons use this principle. Finish the pattern, choose Learn to undo, then press Next step separately for each move. Choosing undo does not play or reset anything. A solution case that already ends solved needs no further inverse moves.

An unknown scramble has no record to undo. A random inverse algorithm will not solve it. Locate pieces and solve successive layers instead. The following cross, corner, middle-layer and last-layer sections describe that process; recognize and orient the case before using an algorithm.

This exercise starts solved and records these 20 moves: R U2 F' L D B2 R' U F2 D' L2 B U' R2 F D2 L' B' U2 R. Selecting the case prepares that scramble without playing its answer. It is a recorded-scramble exercise, not a camera recognizer or arbitrary-state solver.

Inspect all six diagrams. Press Next step once, read which face turns and from which viewing direction, then wait for the animation. Check the completed count before continuing. There is no time limit; Back one lets you inspect a move again.

The last recorded move is R, so the first recovery move is R'. The next-to-last move is U2, so the second recovery move is U2. Continue undoing in reverse order for 20 moves. Intermediate states may look messier; undoing does not necessarily complete another face at each move.

Finally check that all nine stickers on every face match its center. The completed cube stays visible. This teaches undoing a record; the next challenge is finding and placing pieces without that record.

Use a normal 3x3 that has not been reassembled, had a single corner twisted, or had stickers moved. Legal turns produce solvable scrambles. Assembly errors such as one flipped edge are not fixed by memorizing more algorithms. First check missed moves and grip mistakes; do not force pieces.

White cross: locate four two-color white edges. Each needs white down and its other color beside the matching center. White corners: place the four three-color white corners between their matching centers. Check a white bottom and matching bottom rows on all sides.

Middle layer: choose edges without yellow, match the front center, then use the other color to choose left or right insertion. Check both lower rows of all side faces. Yellow cross: make the four yellow edges face upwards, ignoring corners for now. Keep white down.

Place yellow corners between their matching centers first, regardless of orientation. Then keep a fixed grip and twist them upwards one at a time before aligning U. Finally position the top edges so the side faces match too. Pass each checkpoint before continuing. The following algorithm examples are separate setups, not one continuous cube across chapters; do not concatenate their algorithms blindly on a physical scramble.

When stuck, identify the target piece’s colors, locate those centers and determine whether the piece is in the top, middle or bottom layer. Return to that section. Finish an entire algorithm before checking its effect; do not regrip or substitute another algorithm halfway through.

Hold the cube with the white center facing down. The goal is to place the 4 white edges so they form a white cross on the bottom — and each edge's side color must match the adjacent center.

Split your first cross into two tasks. Collect four upward-facing white edge stickers around the yellow center, forming a daisy, without yet matching side colors. Then align each petal and send it down. Skip this stage if the white cross is already correct. White corner stickers are not petals. Regrip horizontally when needed, always yellow up and white down.

Case 1: white already faces up; keep that petal. Case 2: white faces down. Hold the side containing that edge at the front. Turn U until the upper-front edge position has no upward white petal, then use F2 to lift the target. Freeing a position means moving a petal elsewhere, not removing a physical piece.

Case 3: white faces sideways. Regrip horizontally until the white sticker faces front. For an edge at middle-front-right, use U to clear an upward white petal from upper-right, then R. At middle-front-left, clear upper-left with U, then L′. These turns lift the front-facing white sticker onto the top. Work on one target at a time.

Case 4: white faces front but the edge is at upper-front or lower-front. Use F to move it to the middle, then apply case 3. Before F from lower-front, use U to move any upper-front white petal away. From upper-front, its white sticker is not up, so do not add that preliminary U. Count petals after each target: gain at least one, sometimes lifting another incidentally, until all four are collected.

With the daisy complete, choose a white edge and read its other color. Regrip horizontally to put that color’s center at the front; use U to bring the edge above it. Confirm the front sticker matches the center, then F2 to send it down. Repeat for the remaining petals without lifting completed bottom edges again. Inspect all four bottom white edges and their matching side colors, not only the cross shape.

The on-page demonstration shows only the final white-green petal: white up, green facing the green center. F2 sends it down without disturbing the other three cross edges. It is not a one-F2 solution to any scramble. Use the four cases above to collect and align differently placed edges first.

Check the white cross first, then find a three-color white corner. A white-green-orange corner belongs between those three centers. Keep white down and yellow up; regrip horizontally so its home is at bottom-front-right. Turn only U to bring the corner directly above its home at upper-front-right. Front-right means the intersection of the front and right faces, not an arbitrary rightmost corner on the screen.

Keep that grip and complete R U R' U' before inspecting. If the target is not correctly inserted at bottom-front-right, repeat full groups without regripping; the three starting white-sticker orientations typically require one, three or five groups. The piece may temporarily leave front-right: do not chase it with extra U moves. Finish with white down and the other two colors matching the front and right centers.

If the target is twisted in bottom-front-right, use one full group to extract it. If trapped in another bottom slot, regrip horizontally to bring that slot to front-right before extracting. Then locate its home again, hold the home at front-right and align U as above. Extraction is not insertion. Skip correctly solved corners rather than disturbing them to perform four repetitions.

This four-move demonstration prepares just one case needing a single group; it does not automatically perform three or five groups. On a physical cube, inspect after each full group. After all four corners, check the nine white bottom stickers and matching bottom rows on all four sides. A white face with mismatched sides is not ready for the middle layer.

Keep white down and yellow up; do not flip the cube over. Check that the first layer is complete, then find a top-layer edge without yellow. White edges are already below, so the candidate should have two side colors. Regrip horizontally to put one matching center at the front, then turn U to place the edge above it with its front sticker matching that center. Resolve any color mismatch before applying an algorithm.

Look at the edge's top color: if it belongs in the right-hand slot, use the algorithm on the right (U R U' R' U' F' U F); if it belongs on the left, use the mirror: U' L' U L U F U' F'.

If a middle edge is in the wrong slot or flipped, insert any top-layer edge into that slot to pop it out, then insert it properly. After this step the bottom two layers are complete.

Focus only on the yellow edges on top — the goal is a yellow cross (ignore side colors for now). You'll see one of four patterns: a dot, a horizontal line, an "L" shape, or already a cross.

Count only the four edge positions, not corners or the center. For a left-right line, use F R U R' U' F'. For an L with yellow edges at left and back, use F U R U' R' F'. For a dot, use the line algorithm, adjust U until the resulting L points left and back, then use the L algorithm. Skip an existing cross. The two-look last-layer lesson has separate manual L and dot examples.

This method places corners before twisting them; do not mix it with a different Sune-based sequence. Ignore whether yellow faces up. A yellow-green-orange corner is in the right location if it is between those three centers, even when twisted. Check all three colors of each corner.

Skip this step if all four corners are correctly located. If one is correct, keep yellow up and white down, and rotate the whole cube horizontally to hold that corner at upper-front-right. Execute U R U' L' U R' U' L completely. It keeps that corner and cycles the other three. Check again; repeat with the same correct corner at front-right if necessary.

If two or no corners are correct, first try U quarter-turns, checking after each of up to three new top alignments. Use any alignment with one correct corner as above; skip if all four match. Only if none of the four alignments has a correct corner, apply the algorithm once and look again. Never regrip halfway through an algorithm. At the checkpoint every corner’s three colors match its surrounding centers; yellow does not yet have to face up.

After all corners are correctly located, keep yellow up, white down and the same front center. Use U to bring an incorrectly oriented corner to upper-front-right. Repeat R' D' R D, checking only after all four moves. Usually two or four groups turn its yellow sticker upwards. Skip corners already facing up.

The lower layers temporarily look scrambled. Do not repair them or rotate the entire cube. Use only U to bring the next twisted corner to the same front-right working position. Continue full four-move groups. After all corners face up, align U with the side centers; the lower layers should recover together.

This complete two-corner example uses two groups of R' D' R D, then U, then four groups, then U' to align. Each Next step still performs only one token. Your physical scramble may need different group counts: inspect rather than copy blindly. If lower layers remain scrambled at the end, check for omitted final D moves, changed grip or missed corners.

The final step: place the 4 top edges. If one edge is already correct, turn that face to the back and apply the algorithm shown below — the other three edges cycle. You may need to apply it twice.

If no edge is correct, apply the algorithm once from any angle to create a correct one, then continue as above.

The moment the last edge drops in — congratulations! You've solved a Rubik's Cube on your own. Practise until each step feels natural, then move on to faster methods such as CFOP.