You can identify the three types of piece.
Yellow centre up, white down. Choose a front face and keep it facing you.
1. Name the faces as you hold the cube
| Letter | Face to turn |
|---|---|
| U | Up: the top face |
| D | Down: the bottom face |
| F | Front: the face towards you |
| B | Back: the face away from you |
| R | Right |
| L | Left |
These letters describe positions, not colours. If you rotate the whole cube, a different colour may become F. During an algorithm, keep your front fixed unless a whole-cube rotation is explicitly written.
2. Read the direction
Imagine looking straight at the face named by the letter. A plain letter means a 90° clockwise turn. An apostrophe means a 90° anticlockwise turn. A 2 means 180° in either direction.
R: turn the right face clockwise, viewed from the right.R': turn the right face anticlockwise, viewed from the right.U2: turn the top face halfway around.
The bottom and back faces often feel reversed because you are viewing them from the front. Judge clockwise from the face being turned, not from the front of the cube.
3. Read left to right
R U R' U' means four separate turns in this order. Turn the right face clockwise, the top face clockwise, the right face anticlockwise and the top face anticlockwise. Finish one move before starting the next.
To undo a sequence, reverse its order and invert each move. The undo for those four turns is U R U' R', not the original sequence with all apostrophes swapped in place.
4. Match the demonstration
The next-move caption names the face and gives the direction. Advance one move, do it on your cube and compare. Dragging the on-screen cube only changes your viewing angle and leaves your place in the move sequence unchanged.
Watch, then try
Work through an example
Start by stepping through the example one move at a time. This example demonstrates a specific action. Use the lesson’s setup instructions to recognise when that action applies to your own scramble.
Watch one worked example
Practise on this scrambled cube. R followed by R′ takes you back to the start, and so does doing U2 twice. After all four moves, the cube is back in the same scramble.
Example grip: yellow up · blue front · red right at the start. Follow any written whole-cube rotations.
0 / 4
Loading 3D cube…
Prepared starting position · 0 / 4 moves
Use Next move to follow the sequence.
Drag to inspect other faces. When the cube has focus, use the arrow keys to rotate the view.
Copy this exact example on your own cube
Start with a solved 3×3, with yellow on top and blue facing you. Follow the setup moves below from left to right to recreate the example’s starting position. Keep this example separate from the scramble you’re solving throughout the course.
R U R' F2 D L2 B U2Then follow the lesson sequence. If your cube has a different colour scheme, use your own colours to identify the corresponding pieces.
Compare the starting position and the result
Drag each cube to inspect its other faces.
Explain it to yourself
Check your understanding
Now use your own cube
Your turn
Do R, then undo it with R′. Do the same with U and F. Finally, do U2 twice. Before each move, say which face moves and in which direction.
Open a 3×3 Digital Cube for practiceThe Digital Cube opens in a new tab so you can keep this lesson open while you practise. Check for yourself whether you’ve met the lesson goal, as the Digital Cube doesn’t assess your result.
If you get stuck
My R looks anticlockwise from the front.
Judge whether the turn is clockwise by looking straight at the right face. The same turn can look different from the front.
Before moving on
Check your result
Preparation · no solving yet
Return to the same scramble
The moves come in pairs, with each move followed by its inverse, so the cube returns to the same scramble. You’re practising turn notation. Solving begins in the 3×3 Beginner course.
Confirm these on your cube. Watching the animation alone does not complete the lesson.
Tick each item when you can do it yourself.