How to Solve a 2x2 Cube - Step-by-Step Course

Before you start

Take a cube in your hand - the best way to learn is to repeat the moves on a real cube. You can rotate the animations in the course: drag the cube with your finger or mouse.

Only corners

The 2x2 cube is made of 8 corners - each has three colours. There are no edges or centres, so every move only moves corners, and solving comes down to putting them in their places and turning them the right way round.

How do you know what colour a face is?

On the 3x3 cube the colour of a face is determined by its centre. The 2x2 has no centre, so the colours of the faces come from the corners you have already solved. One fixed rule helps - on every standard cube the colours sit opposite each other in the same way:

• white opposite yellow,
• green opposite blue,
• red opposite orange.

How to hold the cube

First you solve the white layer on the bottom, and from then on you keep it on the bottom until the end - the yellow layer is then on top. You can choose any colour for the front - in the animations it is green.

The method has three parts: the white layer (stage 2), the yellow face on top (stage 3) and corners into place (stage 4). You only need three algorithms. If you have already done the 3x3 cube course, you already know two of them.

1Move notation

An algorithm is a short sequence of moves written down in letters. Each letter is the English name of the face you turn:

• R - right, L - left,
• U - up, D - down,
• F - front, B - back.

A letter on its own means a quarter turn clockwise when you look straight at that face. An apostrophe (R', read “R prime”) is a turn in the opposite direction, and a two (R2) is a half turn. On the 2x2 cube each face is half of the cube: R turns the whole right half, and L the whole left half. Click a move below to see it on the cube:

Watch out for the L, D and B moves: “clockwise” is judged while looking at that face, so for L from the left side and for D from below. That is why R and L turn in opposite directions, even though both are “clockwise”.

x, y and z are rotations of the whole cube in your hands - all layers at once, so the solved state does not change, only the side you have at the front or on top:

• x - like the R move: the front of the cube goes to the top,
• y - like the U move: the right face goes to the front,
• z - like the F move: the top goes to the right side.

The apostrophe and the two work just like with faces: y' is a rotation the other way, and y2 turns the cube with its back towards you. In this course you only need y - to bring the right side to the front.

The most important sequence of the course is R U R' U'. Repeat it a few times until your hand remembers the move - you will need it in stage 2.

2White layer

Goal: four white stickers on the bottom face, and on every side the bottom row in one colour. After this stage half of the cube is done.

Inserting a corner

You insert every white corner in the same way. Choose a spot on the bottom where there is no white corner yet (a corner with yellow may be sitting there - that is fine, it will come up to the top on its own), and hold the cube so that this spot is at the front right (rotating the whole cube, y). Turn the top layer (U) until the white corner that fits there is exactly above that spot. Now repeat R U R' U' until the corner pops down with white facing down. How many times depends on where the white sticker is facing:

You do not have to memorise the number of repetitions - just check after each sequence whether the corner is already in place. The other corners of the bottom layer stay untouched in the meantime.

The first corner

Start with any corner with a white sticker and insert it in any spot on the bottom - for now there is nothing to match it to. From now on it determines the colours of the faces. A white-green-red corner at the front left means: the front is green, the left side is red.

Which corner goes where

The simplest rule for the second and third corner: choose a white corner that has a colour in common with a corner already on the bottom - it goes next to it, on the side of that colour. The white-green-orange corner shares green with the white-green-red one, so it goes next to it on the green face.

In general: every bottom corner has the colours of the two faces it sits next to. You can read the colour of a face from a corner that is already on it. If there is none on that face yet, its colour is the opposite of the colour of the face across from it. An example for a white-green-red corner at the front left:

• front right: white + green (front) + orange (opposite red),
• back left: white + red (left) + blue (opposite green),
• back right: white + blue + orange.

The corner is on the bottom, but twisted wrong or in the wrong place? Hold the cube so that it is at the front right and do R U R' U' once. The corner will come up to the top and you can insert it as above.

Finally, look at the cube from every side: on each side the two bottom stickers must be the same colour.

3Yellow face

Goal: the whole top face yellow. The corners may still be in the wrong places - you will deal with that in stage 4.

All the yellow corners are already on top (because the white layer is on the bottom), but some of them may have the yellow sticker on the side - the top face may have 0, 1, 2 or 4 yellow stickers. You twist them one after another with one short sequence. The cube looks broken along the way - that is how it should be, do not stop halfway.

1. Hold the cube with the white layer on the bottom, with a corner that has yellow on the side in the top front right corner.
2. Repeat R' D' R D until that corner has yellow on top (2 or 4 times). The white layer will fall apart.
3. Turn only the top layer (U) so that the next corner with yellow on the side is in the front right corner. Do not rotate the whole cube!
4. Repeat R' D' R D for this corner. When all of them have yellow on top, the white layer will come back into place.

If all the corners already have yellow on top at the start - go straight to stage 4.

4Corners into place

Goal: a solved cube.

Look at the sides of the top layer. If on one side both top stickers are the same colour, those two corners are already placed correctly relative to each other - speedcubers call such a pair “headlights”. Rotate the cube in your hands and look at all four sides (turning only the top changes nothing here - the headlights move along with it). There are only three possibilities:

• Headlights on every side - the corners are in place, just turn the top (U) so that it matches the white layer.
• Headlights on one side - rotate the whole cube (y) so that the headlights are on the left side, do the algorithm once and finally turn the top (U) so that it matches the white layer.
• No headlights anywhere - do the algorithm once from any side. After it, headlights will appear on one side - then continue as above.

R U2 R' U' R U2 L' U R' U' L

The algorithm swaps the two right corners of the top and leaves the left ones. It is easiest to remember in two parts: R U2 R' U' R U2 (right hand) and L' U R' U' L.

Done - the cube is solved. Your first solves will take a minute or two, but after a dozen or so you will do it without looking at the course.

Cheat sheet: all algorithms

Everything you need to remember in one place. White layer on the bottom, yellow on top.

Printable cheat sheet (A4 / PDF)

1. White layer - free spot at the front right, corner above it: R U R' U' until it pops in (1, 3 or 5 times).
2. Yellow face - corner with yellow facing sideways at the front right: R' D' R D until yellow is on top, then turn only the top (U) to the next corner.
3. Corners into place - headlights on the left: R U2 R' U' R U2 L' U R' U' L, finally turn the top. No headlights - the algorithm once from any side and once more.

Solve it yourself

A practice simulator. You can scramble the whole cube or choose a single stage - then you get a random cube with the previous stages solved and practise only what you are learning.

Common problems

I did the algorithm and it is worse than before

It is almost always one move done in the wrong direction - most often L or D, because “clockwise” is judged while looking at that face (go back to stage 1 and click those moves). The second cause is the wrong grip: in stage 4 the headlights must be on the left, and in stage 3 the corner being twisted must be in the top front right. Do the algorithm slowly, move by move together with the animation, and do not stop halfway.

In stage 3 the white layer did not come back

Most often the whole cube was rotated between corners instead of just the top layer, or repeating R' D' R D was stopped before the yellow got to the top. Solve the white layer again - it is quick.

The white layer is there, but the sides do not match

All the white stickers are on the bottom, but on one side the bottom stickers have different colours - this means that one of the corners is in the wrong place. Take it out (at the front right, R U R' U' once) and insert it where its colour fits, checking the opposite colours.

One twisted corner is left

A correctly assembled cube cannot have a single twisted corner. If yours looks like that, a corner was at some point twisted in place (loose 2x2 cubes can do that on their own). Algorithms will not fix it - twist it back with your fingers, very carefully.

An exception: on the 2x2 cube one corner is fixed - it is attached to the core of the mechanism and cannot be taken out. You must not twist that corner, because it will always break.

My cube has a different colour scheme

Older and unusual cubes may have a different scheme. The method works the same way: check on the solved cube which colours are opposite each other, and use those pairs when choosing corners in stage 2.

The cube locks up or the layers turn crooked

Cheap 2x2 cubes often get stuck halfway through a move and mistakes are easy on them. Modern speedcubes turn smoothly, and magnets pull the layers into place. See 2x2 cubes.

How long does it take to learn?

Most people solve the 2x2 cube with the course on the very first evening, and without looking - after a dozen or so solves. This method needs about 50-80 moves, which at first gives a minute or two, and after a few weeks of regular solving - about 20-30 seconds.

What next?

Once you can solve the cube a few times in a row without looking at the course, you can start timing your solves. Time every solve and count the average of five - single results vary a lot.

Faster 2x2 methods replace stages 3 and 4 with shorter algorithms chosen for each case. The most popular one to start with is the Ortega method: instead of the white layer you solve only the white face, and then you finish the cube in two steps. Competitors go on to learn the CLL and EG methods, in which after the first layer (or just the face) a single algorithm finishes the rest of the cube - in return you need to know several dozen of them.

If you do not solve the 3x3 cube yet, this is a good moment - you already know half of the moves. You will find the 3x3 course below.