How to Solve a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube?

 
How to Solve a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube?🧊

Step-by-Step

How to solve 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube in easy steps with details for beginners. 

This is a very common type of Rubik's cube and most try to learn (starting ) from 3x3x3 cubes

Identify Pieces

check colours and how they are oriented in the cube ( white - yellow, Red - Orange, Blue - Green are the colours opposite each other respectively) 
you need to identify pieces of the cube. there are

• 8 corner pieces 
• 6 centrepieces
• 12 edge pieces 

This is the first you can see, all the pieces are correctly oriented. 

Identify Notations with Rotations

According to the below image shows, Notation with Rotation need to remember to solve a cube.

R  - Right side clockwise rotation

R' - Right side Anti-clockwise rotation or R-prime

L  - Left side clockwise rotation

L' -  Left side Anti-clockwise rotation or  L-prime

U  - Upper side clockwise rotation

U' - Upper side Anti-clockwise rotation  or U-prime

D  - Downside clockwise rotation

D' - Downside Anti-clockwise rotation  or D-prime

F  - Front side clockwise rotation

F' - Front side Anti-clockwise rotation or F-prime

B  - Back side clockwise rotation

B' - Back side Anti-clockwise rotation or U-prime

Clockwise rotation indicates 

as 

(R, L, U, D, F, B) 

Anti-clockwise rotation indicates 

as 

(R', L', U', D', F', B')

Making Cross  

First, select your favourite out of 6 colours.
a. This is the base colour and starts from that
b. Choosing white is very convenient because it is easy to use as a base compared to other colours.

If we select White as our base colour, automatically Yellow will be the upside.

we can choose whatever colour for the Front. then the other three colours are automatically selected concerning the Front( F ) colour.

If the front( F ) colour is Orange;

R - Right side will be GREEN

L - Left side will be Blue

B - The back side will be RED

  find edge pieces containing Red, Orange, Blue, and Green with white

• Rotate each edge piece, until the white side meets the yellow centre.
• Then rotate the upper layer until the edge pieces match the correct centrepieces. (Red with the red centre, Green with the green centre Orange with the orange centre, and Blue with the blue centre)

• when each edge matches its respective centre, rotate that side two times. likewise, other centres should match their respective edge pieces.

• e.g. consider the orange-white edge;
• Rotate the orange-white edge piece, until the white side meets the yellow centre.

Let's take White-Orrange as an example. hold the White-Orange piece with the Yellow centre and

• Rotate the upper layer until the orange side of the edge piece  meets the orange centre

• Next, Rotate twice the orange centre side. then White-orange is fixed when making the white cross with the side centre. 

likewise, other centres should match their respective edge pieces. it will finish white cross with side centres.

                 The white cross is finished then. 

Fix Corners

now need to place four corners that have white parts. ( bottom four corners)

1. Find the corner piece.
2. check whether it is in the down layer or upper layer. and if it is in the down layer, it should take to the upper layer only if it is not in the correct position with correctly oriented. 
3. and do as shown in the picture (e.g.).
4. if it is in the upper layer, check which side matches your base colour ( here white).
5. if the upper side contains the base colour, we must rotate the white side to the left or right. and fix the corner issues.

Blue, red, and white corners

In this case, the correct corner is already in the down layer but the parity missed matched. so, We need to take that to the upper layer and placed it back in the correct corner.

When we took this corner into the upper layer, the white side was on the right side. Sometimes it will be on the left side or sometimes upside.

We need to adjust the white side to either right or left to place corners correctly

          

Red-Green_White Corner

as shown in the above image, the Red-Green-White corner is placed exactly at the TOP of the bottom corner where we need to place the Red-Green-White corner. 

From left to right;

1. place the Red-Green-White corner to the TOP layer

as per the orientation of the corner piece, corner piece should move as follow;

2. U-Turn the upper layer once clockwise

3. R -Turn the Right layer once in clockwise

4. U'-Turn the upper layer once Anti-clockwise

5. R'-Turn the Right layer once Anti-clockwise

Green - Orange -White Corner

place the Green - Orange -White Corner corner to TOP layer

Next, do URU'R' - to fix the corner

because the White side is on the left side.

Blue-Orange-White Corner

Here, White is not the Right or left. so, we need to adjust it first and do as others and as shown below images, we can fix that edge also.

In this case, place the imparity corner to TOP-RIGHT. Then, do R U' R' 

Next, U'L'UL

How to fix Second Layer Edges

1. as shown in the following image, keep the edge piece we want to fix in line with the corresponding centrepiece.

Here, we consider the Green-Red Edge piece 

It should be placed to the right side if we consider the green side as the front.

use the following algorithm to fix this.

                    U R U' R' U' F' U F

Next, we consider the Green-Orange Edge piece 
It should be placed to the left side if we consider the green side as the front.

use the following algorithm to fix this.

                    U' L' U L U F U' F'

NOW FINAL LAYER ( UPPER LAYER ) 

THE TOP LAYER

we need to make a cross to fix the top layer (upper layer)

there can be several possibilities in the top layer ( yellow mostly) 

1. Yellow L shape

2. Yellow line along the centre

3. Only the centre piece n Yellow

1. Yellow L shape

Here, You can see L shape

Keep the L shape as shown above image and do the following algorithm to solve the top layer cross

                 F U R U' R' F'

2. Yellow line along the centre

Keep the Line shape as shown above image and do the following algorithm to solve the top layer cross

                             F R U  R' U' F'

3. Only the centre piece n Yellow

In this scenario, we have to use one of the above methods (L or Line) to start and do another next to solve the cross.

F U R U' R' F' - will make a line

THEN KEEP THE LINE FROM LEFT TO RIGHT AND DO

"F R U  R' U' F' "

F R U  R' U' F'

OR

F R U  R' U' F' - use this algorithm to make an L shape as shown below, then use F U R U' R' F'

now use F U R U' R' F'

NOW TOP LAYER CROSS IS MADE

just focus only on the cross, others may be very 

 ****************************************

Now there are two options to fix the TOP layer

1. Fix corners and then go for the edges  

We need to make a fish shape on the TOP 

( as shown in the following image )

Let's start

1. keep the yellow cross at the top as shown below image. one yellow side to front(RIGHT OR LEFT)

Sometimes TOP layer will be as follow. then the algorithm will be the same but starting position will be different

we will check other possibilities later

2. Do the following algorithm 

                        R U R' U R 2U R'

3. Now Keep the Fish shape like the below image and do the same algorithm. that will make the Upper side yellow.

                                         R U R' U R 2U R'

If you don't have yellow facing you on the right side(the yellow side will be on the left side), 

do the same algorithm twice by keeping the cube as below. (R U R' U R 2U R' ) x 2 

or hold the cube-facing fish head to the right front and do the  L' U' L U' L' 2U' L algorithm. That will make the Upper side yellow.

Let's make all yellow in the TOP layer from fish shape

          

Hold the cube as shown above and do 

(R U R' U R 2U R' )

TOP Layer all are yellow on the upper side.

4. Now fix corners first

check whether you will get one, two or three side colours of the top layer pieces with side colours.

the following image shows two (two corners) of three matched side colour

so, we must keep both of them to the backside and do the following algorithm to fix the corners

               

              R' F R'  BB RF'R' BB R'R' 

SOMETIMES WHEN WE DO THE ABOVE ALGORITHM, THE CUBE WILL BE FIXED TOTALLY AND REMAIN NOTHING TO FIX.

5. now time to fix the TOP layer edges and fix the cube totally.

          

  RR URU R'U'R'U'R' UR'  

or

 RU' RURUR U'R'U' R'R'  

we have to do one of the above two algorithms. but which one is right?

when placing corners in the right place, check the centre edges. whether they must move towards the right side (anti-clockwise) to the left side (clockwise).

If the left side (clockwise)             

-  RR  URU R'U'R'U'R' UR' 

If the right side (anti-clockwise)  

-  RU' RURUR  U'R'U' R'R'  

Let's see both methods

If the left side (clockwise)             

-  RR  URU R'U'R'U'R' UR' 

 

All done!

If the right side (anti-clockwise)  

-  RU' RURUR  U'R'U' R'R'  

                                    

All done!

Sometimes when we do the following algorithm, we get the TOP layer which has all corners match but edged swapped opposite sides. 

 R' F R'  BB RF'R' BB R'R' 

when we get this, we have to do the following algorithm

                        2M' U 2M' 2U 2M' U 2M'

2.  Fix edges and then go for the corners

In this method, we must fix edges and then corners. To this use, the following algorithm 

  R U R' U R 2U R' - similar to the previous method. 

but the cube should be kept slightly different.

Hold the cube where two TOP layer side colours match their respective colours and keep them to the right and the back sides.

as shown in the above image, the Blue and Orange of the TOP layer edge pieces have matched their side colours.

so hold them to the right and the back sides (here, Blue - to the right side and Orange - to the back side)  and do

                        R U R' U R 2U R'

After solving the edges, we can go for the corners.

check whether at least one corner corners match its correct spot or not. sometimes more than one corner will match respective corner colour combinations. 

if all corner colours matched their respective corners, but are not correctly oriented, we can fix them easily.

a. hold the cube where the unsold corner to (UP-FRONT-RIGHT) and do,

R'D'RD - UNTIL the UP-FRONT-RIGHT corner is fixed. (n.b. need to complete full R'D'RD - rotation even if upper layer corner fixed. otherwise, the next corner will not be fixed when doing this)

then move the next unsold corner to (UP-FRONT-RIGHT) and do the same algorithm. 

likewise do it for all other corners as well.

after that, the cube will be fixed.

or  Rotate the whole cube in the direction of z' 

(anti-clockwise of the z-axis) 

After rotation, as shown above, we can use R'U'RU to fix corners. 

(n.b. only unsolved corners must be in (LEFT-FRONT-TOP ) corner before running the above algorithm)

then rotate the unresolved corners to TOP-LEFT-FRONT and do the same algorithm again and again until the cube gets fixed.

If only one corner is matched or no corner is matched, use one of the following algorithms to match the respective colours.

U R U' L' U R' U' L  or U' L' U R U' L U R' 

Then use R'D'RD  or R'U'RU algorithms to fix corners. 

R'D'RD  - Hold the cube like the below image. - the green side will be FRONT, and use the algorithm to fix the cube

 R'U'RU  to use this, the cube must be held like the below image - the green side will be FRONT