The 2x2 is the friendliest twisty puzzle to learn. It has only eight pieces, all of them corners, and there are no centers or edges to worry about. This guide uses a three-step beginner method: build one layer, turn the last layer’s yellow stickers up, then move the last corners into place. You need two short algorithms and one simple trick, and every step comes with a 3D demonstration you can replay as often as you like.
Before you start
Hold the cube with white on the bottom. The whole guide keeps white on the bottom and yellow on top, just like the solver’s Beginner mode. Which color faces you does not matter on a 2x2, but try not to rotate the cube in your hands while you are doing an algorithm.
Learn the six letters. Each move is written as a letter for the face you turn: R (right), L (left), U (up), D (down), F (front) and B (back). A plain letter is a quarter turn clockwise, as if you were looking straight at that face. An apostrophe means counter-clockwise, so R′ turns the right face towards you. A 2 means a half turn. If this is new to you, the notation guide shows every move in 3D.
Expect to take your time. Most people finish their first solve within half an hour and can do it without the guide after a few more. Speed comes later; for now, go slowly and check the demonstration after every step.
Step 1: Solve the white layer
The goal of the first step is a white face on the bottom where each side also matches: the two stickers next to each other on the front are the same color, the two on the right are the same color, and so on. This is the only step without a fixed algorithm, but it relies on one move sequence you will use again and again: R U R′ U′.
Start by finding any white corner and putting it on the bottom with white facing down. That corner decides the colors of the other three. For example, if it is white, blue and red, the corner next to it on the blue side must share blue, and the corner next to it on the red side must share red.
To insert the next corner:
- Find a white corner in the top layer. Turn the top (U) until the corner sits directly above the empty spot where it belongs, at the front right.
- Hold the cube so that spot is at the front right bottom, and repeat R U R′ U′ until the corner drops into place with white facing down. It takes one, three or five repetitions depending on which way the white sticker faces.
- If a white corner is already in the bottom layer but in the wrong spot or twisted, put it at the front right bottom and do R U R′ U′ once. That lifts it into the top layer, and you can insert it properly.
Repeat for the remaining corners. Do not worry if the top layer gets mixed up: R U R′ U′ only moves pieces in the top layer and the corner you are working on, so finished corners stay where they are once you hold the cube correctly.
Step 2: Turn the yellow stickers up
Now turn the cube over in your mind: white stays on the bottom, and all the work happens on the top layer. In this step you make the whole top face yellow. The corners do not need to be in the right places yet; only the yellow stickers need to face up.
Everything in this step uses one algorithm, often called the Sune:
R U R′ U R U2 R′
Look at the top face and count the yellow stickers pointing up:
- One yellow sticker up. Turn the top until that corner is at the front left, then do the algorithm. Afterwards you will either be finished or see one yellow corner up again; if so, put it at the front left and repeat.
- No yellow stickers up, or two up. Turn the top until the front left corner has its yellow sticker facing left, towards you from the left side, then do the algorithm. This always leads to the one-sticker case.
- All four up. You are done with this step.
It never takes more than three applications. The solver’s Beginner mode sometimes uses a shorter algorithm for this step when it recognises a special pattern; the result is the same.
Step 3: Put the top corners in place
The top is yellow, but the corners may be in the wrong places. Look at the sides of the top layer. If two neighbouring corners on one side show the same color, cubers call them headlights.
This step uses one longer algorithm that swaps the two corners on the right side while leaving everything else alone:
R U R′ U′ R′ F R2 U′ R′ U′ R U R′ F′
- Headlights on one side. Turn the top so the headlights are on the left, then do the algorithm once.
- No headlights anywhere. Two diagonal corners need swapping. Do the algorithm once from any side; headlights appear, and you continue as above.
- Headlights on every side. The corners are already in place relative to each other.
Finish by turning the top layer (U, U2 or U′) until every side is one color. That is a solved 2x2.
When you feel confident, try to recognise the case before you turn the top: how many headlights, where the yellow stickers point. That recognition is what makes the fast methods fast.
Where to go from here
Once you can solve the 2x2 without the guide, time yourself with the cube timer. Solves under a minute come quickly; under 20 seconds takes practice with the same three steps. Faster methods such as Ortega and CLL solve the last layer in one or two algorithms, but they need you to learn many more cases.
The same corner trick from step 1 is also the second step of the 3x3 beginner method, so you are already a step closer to solving a full-size cube.