Sarah's Cubing Site - 3x3x3 - Method for beginners (2023)

How to solve a Rubik's cube

printable version

This is a Rubik's cube solving guide for those who have little to no experience with dice. It is a fairly simple method that requires minimal memorization. It's a simplified version of CFOP (the most common advanced 3x3x3 method), so it's also relatively easy to switch to CFOP.

• Structure
• Notation
• general description


• Paso 1
• paso 2
• level 3
• stage 4
• paso 5
• paso 6
• paso 7

Structure

A 3x3x3 Rubik's cube consists of 20 moving parts: 12 edge pieces and 8 corner pieces; and 6 fixed parts: the 6 intermediate parts.

Each centerpiece is placed in the center of each face and has a sticker on it. Each heart piece defines the color of the face on which it is placed.

The Centers.

Each border piece is sandwiched between two center pieces and has two stickers.

the edges.

Each corner piece is sandwiched between three edge pieces and has three stickers.

the corners

oguideof an edge or corner piece refers to the way it twists or turns.

Greenish-yellow margin correctly aligned.	Misaligned yellow-green border.

Yellow-orange-green corner correctly aligned.	Misaligned yellow-orange-green corner.	Misaligned yellow-orange-green corner.

oPermutationof an edge or corner piece refers to its location.

Correctly inverted yellow-green border.	Yellow-green border incorrectly permuted.

Yellow-orange-green corners swapped correctly.	Yellow-orange-green corner incorrectly permuted.

Once the cube is in a resolved position, each tile is swapped and lined up correctly.

Notation

These are the names of the six layers of the cube.

"Alto" [U]	"Down" [D]	"Of course" [R]	"Links" [L]	"Front" [F]	"back" [B]

A single letter denotes singlea 90 degree rotation clockwiseof that face

A single letter preceded by an apostrophe (') denotesa 90 degree counterclockwise rotationof that face

A single letter preceded by a "2" denotesa 180 degree turn, in all directions, from that face.

Of	OF'	U2	D	D'	D2

R	R'	R2	UE	UE'	L2

F	F'	F2	B	B'	B2

There are also three "slices". Only the M-Slice is used in this guide.

in the middle [M]	"equatorial" [E]	"stand up" [S]

A single letter indicates that a slide is being moved90 degrees in the same direction as the U, R, F movements.

A single letter preceded by an apostrophe (') indicates that a slide is being movedMoved 90 degrees in the same direction D, L, B.

A single letter preceded by a "2" denotesa 180 degree turn, in all directions, of this record.

METRO	METRO'	M2
mi	MI'	E2
S	S'	S2

general description

This is what the solution process will look like.

The first two layers:

Make a "cruz" on the U (or D) side.	Full shift D.	full disk E

Last turn:

Line up the U edges.	Align the corners in a U.	Change the corners in U.	Change the borders U.

The cross (edges of the first layer)

Here you solve for all four edges of a surface.

This is an intuitive step that does not require any algorithm. This guide uses the white side, but you can choose any color you like. Find the four edges that belong to this face (ie with white stickers) and solve them by moving each of them to the right place. Make sure that each of the four borders is placed between the centers of the same color (for example, the white-orange border is between the white center and the orange center). .

first layer corners

Here you will complete the first layer.

Find a white corner on the U plane and rotate the U plane so that the corner is directly over where it belongs. You will face three cases. Run the algorithm that matches your case.

Meta.	fall 1.	autumn 2.	autumn 3.
	R U R'	F'U'F	R U2 R' U' R U R'

If you don't have white corners on the U layer, the unresolved ones are in the wrong place on the D layer. Remove one so it's on the U layer using one of these algorithms. Repeat until all four corners of the first layer are in place.

second layer edges

Here you will complete the equatorial layer and therefore the first two layers.

Find a non-yellow edge on the u-plane and rotate the u-face so that the edge is diagonally where it should be. You will face two cases.

Meta.	fall 1.	autumn 2.
	U R U' R' U' F' U F	U' F' U' F U R U' R'

If you have no non-yellow borders in the U level, the unresolved borders are in the wrong place in the second level. Peel one off so it sits on top of the U layer. Repeat the process until all four edges of the second layer are in place.

Orientation of the edges in U

In this step you will form a "cross" on the U layer. There are three cases. The top images show what the cube would look like in terms of the F, U, and R faces, and the bottom images show what the U layer would look like.

	Meta.	Drop 1: "L".	Case 2: "line".	Case 3: "Point".
view from you
View from the UFR
		F U R U' R' F'	F R U R' U' F'	Run the algorithm from case 1 or 2 and it will narrow down to case 1 or 2.

Orientation of U corners

The next step is to make the entire U face yellow. There are seven cases, but you only need two algorithms.

	Meta.
view from you
View from the UFR

Category 1: Aligned to a corner

	Case 1: "Tones".	Autumn 2: "Antisuno".
view from you
View from the UFR
	R U R' U R U2 R'	R' U' R U' R' U2 R

Category 2: Two facing corners

Position the cube so that there is a misaligned corner in FLU.

	Case 3: "Superman".	Case 4: "Chameleon".	Case 5: "Peanut".
view from you
View from the UFR
	Sune + Antisune	they are +U2+ sun protection	they are +Of+ sun protection

Category 3: guide for zero corners

Position the cube so that one misaligned corner is in the LUF.

	Fall 6: "Pi."	Case 7: "Double Superman".
view from you
View from the UFR
	they are +OF'+ they are	you are + you are

Permutation of U corners

This step consists of fully resolving the corners of the last layer. There are two cases. The algorithms are a bit longer than the previous ones, but not difficult to learn since they are "cheating with your fingers". Parentheses show groups of moves to make them easier to learn.

	Meta.	Case 1: "Headlights".	Case 2: "No headlight".
view from you
View from the UFR
		(R U R' U') (R' F R2) (U R' U') (R U R' F')	faro +U2+ will do

Permutation of edges in U

The last step is to solve the remaining edges and complete the cube.

	Meta.	Autumn 1: "U(a) Permanente".	Fall 2: "U(b) Permanent."	Autumn 3: „H Perm“.	Fall 4: "Perm Z."
view from you
View from the UFR
		F2 U' M' U2 M U' F2	F2 U M' U2 M U F2	M2 U M2 U2 M2 U M2	you(a) +OF'+ U(a)