Rubik's Cube Notation

Rubik’s cube notation chart: all 18 basic moves in 3D

The chart holds every basic move of Rubik’s cube notation: six faces, each turned three ways. Pick any of the 18 buttons and the cube marks the moving layer with an arrow, turns it once and returns to rest, so you can replay a move as often as you like. The line under the cube spells the move out, such as “Right face, clockwise quarter turn”, the same caption the cube solvers here show while you follow a solution. Sticker colors you set with the Colors button on a solver or simulator page carry over to the chart and to every demo below.

The six face letters of cube notation: U, D, R, L, F and B

Colors only matter when a guide or a solver tells you how to hold the cube. Most solutions on this site come with a line such as “Hold the cube with white on top and green in front”. Match it once, keep that grip, and every letter in the solution lands on the right face.

R, R prime and R2: clockwise, counter-clockwise and half turns

A bare letter means a clockwise quarter turn, as seen when you look straight at that face. R prime, written R′ or R’, turns the same face counter-clockwise: the mark reverses a move, so R′ undoes R. R2 is a half turn, which ends in the same place either way, so the R2′ found in some finger-trick algorithms lands exactly where R2 does.

Clockwise depends on the side you picture yourself on. For R the front column rises, while for L, judged from the left, it drops. U sends the front row to the left, D sends it to the right, and B, judged from behind, looks counter-clockwise from where you sit. The cube solvers here count R2 as one move, the half-turn metric in which any 3x3 position can be solved in 20 moves or fewer.

Cube rotation notation: x, y and z

Rotations turn the entire cube in your hands, so no piece moves relative to another. x follows R, y follows U and z follows F, with the usual marks: y′ rotates the other way and x2 turns the cube upside down. Written algorithms use them to bring the part you are working on into a comfortable spot.

The cube solvers on this site never put x, y or z in a solution; a hold note sets your grip instead. The 3x3 Beginner mode wants yellow on top, which for a cube painted white-up and green-front is exactly an x2. The simulator has no rotation keys either: dragging the background only moves your viewpoint, and the U key keeps turning the face that started on top.

Middle slice notation: M, E and S

The layers between opposite faces have letters of their own. M, the middle layer between L and R, turns in the same direction as L. E, the equator between U and D, follows D, and S, the standing layer between F and B, follows F. A single M does the same as R L′ followed by an x′ rotation.

In the 3x3 simulator, a drag that starts on a sticker in the middle row or column turns a slice, and the move history logs it as M, E or S. The 3x3 solver’s scramble field accepts only the six outer faces and reports M, E, S and x, y, z as unknown moves. A 5x5 also has one middle layer, while a 4x4 has two inner layers and no middle one, so big cubes number their inner layers instead.

On a real cube, hold the right and left layers still and push the middle layer with a ring finger from the back: pushing the back upward brings the front down, which is M, and pushing it downward is M′. Many speedcubers do M moves this way in the last steps of the Roux method, where most of the solve is slices.

Wide moves and 4x4 and 5x5 notation: Rw, r, 2R and 3Rw

On a 4x4 a plain R turns only the outer layer, 2R turns the second layer on its own, and Rw, also written as a lowercase r, turns both together, so Rw is simply R and 2R at once. A number in front of a wide move counts layers from the face: 3Rw turns the outer three, while on a 5x5, 3R is the middle layer by itself. On a 3x3, a lowercase r means R together with the middle slice.

The 4x4 Rubik’s cube solver prints exactly this notation: 2R, 2L and 2U for single inner layers and Uw2 in one of its parity fixes, with “(inner layer)” or “(two layers)” added to the caption as you follow along. Its scramble field accepts every form above. When you play the 5x5 Rubik’s cube online, the simulator logs your own turns the same way, as 2R, 3R, Rw or 3Rw.

Algorithm notation: reading a sequence move by move

An algorithm is a row of moves read from left to right. Make them one at a time and keep your grip unless a rotation says otherwise. Brackets group a short “trigger” that your hand learns as one motion, and a number after the closing bracket repeats it: (R U R′ U′)2 means those four moves twice.

Practise R U R′ U′ in the Rubik’s cube simulator: the link opens a virtual cube with the sequence done once, and five more rounds on the keyboard (R, U, Shift+R, Shift+U) bring up the solved message. The Rubik’s cube solver writes its solutions the same way, one tile per move, and its Beginner mode names the algorithm behind each of its seven stages, such as F R U R′ U′ F′ for the yellow cross. How to solve a Rubik’s cube teaches all seven.

Notation cheat sheet: every symbol on one screen

The table works as a one-page cheat sheet: print this page, or keep it open in a tab while you practise.

Notation beyond the 3x3: 2x2, Pyraminx, Megaminx and Skewb

The same idea, one letter per layer, carries over to every twisty puzzle, but the letters change with the shape. A 2x2 uses the six face letters and nothing else, since it has no middle layers. On a Pyraminx, U, L, R and B name its four corners, and lowercase u, l, r and b twist only the small tips; the Pyraminx solver writes its answers that way. A Megaminx has twelve faces, so it adds two-letter names such as BL or DR, and its competition scrambles use R++ and D— to swing most of the puzzle at once, as the Megaminx solver explains. A Skewb turns around corners rather than faces, and its four letters R, L, U and B each pivot half the puzzle, shown in 3D on the Skewb solver page.