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 furthest 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 a 180° turn in either direction.
Rturns the right face clockwise as viewed from the right.R'turns the right face back the other way, anticlockwise as viewed from the right.U2is a half-turn of the top face.
The bottom and back faces often feel reversed when you look at the cube from the front. To judge which way is clockwise, look directly at the face you’re turning.
3. Read left to right
R U R' U' means four separate turns. 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. To undo those four turns, do U R U' R'. Simply swapping the apostrophes while keeping the original order gives a different sequence.
4. Match the demonstration
The caption for the next move tells you which face to turn and in which direction. Advance one move, do it on your cube and compare. Dragging the on-screen cube only changes your viewing angle and leaves the move sequence as it is.
Watch, then try
Work through an example
Start by stepping through one move at a time. This prepared example shows a specific action. Use the lesson’s setup instructions to recognise when to use it on 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: Start with yellow on top, blue at the front and red on the right. Follow any written instructions for rotating the whole cube.
0 / 4
Loading 3D cube…
Prepared starting position · 0 / 4 moves
Use Next move to follow the sequence.
Drag to inspect other faces. Use the arrow keys to rotate the view when the cube has keyboard focus.
Copy this exact example on your own cube
Start with a solved 3×3, with yellow on top and blue at the front. Apply the setup moves below from left to right to create the example’s starting position. Keep this example separate from the scramble you are 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 the relationships between your own colours to identify the equivalent 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 turns and in which direction.
Open a 3×3 Digital Cube for practiceOpens in a new tab so you can keep this lesson open while you practise. Check for yourself whether you’ve met the lesson goal. The Digital Cube doesn’t assess your result.
If you get stuck
My R move looks anticlockwise from the front.
Look directly at the right face to judge which way is clockwise. From the front, the turn can look as though it goes the other way.
Before moving on
Check your result
Preparation · no solving yet
Return to the same scramble
Each move is followed by its inverse, so the cube returns to the same scramble. Here you’re practising turn notation. You’ll start solving in the 3×3 Beginner course.
Confirm these on your cube. Watching the animation alone does not complete the lesson.
Tick each item once you can do it yourself.