Steps to Solve a Rubik's Cube

EditPart One of Four:
First Layer

1. 1
   Familiarize yourself with the Notations at the bottom of the page.
2. 2
   Choose one face to start with. In the examples that will follow, the color for the first layer is white.
3. 3
   
   
   Solve the cross. Set into position the four edge pieces that contain white. (You should be able to do this by yourself without needing algorithms.) All four edge pieces can be placed in a maximum of eight moves (five or six in general).
   • Place the cross at the bottom. Turn the cube over 180° so that the cross is now on the bottom.
4. 4
   Solve the four corners of the first layer, one by one.You should also be able to place the corners without needing algorithms. To get you started, here is an example of one corner being solved:
   • At the end of this step, the first layer should be complete, with a solid color (in this case, white) at the bottom.
5. 5
   Verify your first layer is correct. You should now have the first layer complete and look like this (from the bottom side):
   

EditPart Two of Four:
Middle Layer

1. 1
   Place the four edges of the middle layer. Those edge pieces are the ones that do not contain yellow in our example. You need to know only one algorithm to solve the middle layer. The second algorithm is symmetrical to the first.
   • If the edge piece is located in the last layer :

     									(1.a)
     									(1.b) symmetrical to (1.a)

   • If the edge piece is in the middle layer but in the wrong place or with the wrong orientation, simply use the same algorithm to place any other edge piece in its position. Your edge piece will then be in the last layer, and you just have to use the algorithm again to position it properly in the middle layer.
2. 2
   Verify correct positioning. Your cube should now have the first two layers complete and look like this (from the bottom side) :

1. Permute the corners. At this step, our goal is to place the corners of the last layer in their correct position, regardless of their orientation.
   • Locate two adjacent corners that share a color other than the color of the top layer (other than yellow in our case).
   • Turn the top layer until these two corners are on the correct color side, facing you. For instance, if the two adjacent corners both contain red, turn the top layer until those two corners are on the red side of the cube. Note that on the other side, the two corners of the top layer will both contain the color of that side as well (orange in our example).
     
     
     
   • Determine whether the two corners of the front side are in their correct position, and swap them if needed. In our example, the right side is green, and the left side is blue. Therefore the front corner on the right must contain green, and the front corner on the left must contain blue. If it is not the case, you will need to swap those two corners with the following algorithm:

     Swap 1 and 2 :

     (2.a)

   • Do the same with the two corners at the back. Turn the cube around to place the other side (orange) in front of you. Swap the two front corners if needed.
   • As an alternative, if you notice that both the front pair and the back pair of corners need to be swapped, you can do it with only one algorithm (note the huge similarity with the previous algorithm):

     Swap 1 with 2 and 3 with 4 :

     (2.b)
2. 2
   Orient the corners. Locate each top color facelet of the corners (yellow in our case). You need to know only one algorithm to orient the corners:

   (3.a)

   • The algorithm will rotate three corners on themselves at once (from the side to the top). The blue arrows show which three corners you are turning, and in which direction (clockwise). If the yellow stickers are the way shown on the pictures and you perform the algorithm once, you should end up with the four yellow stickers on top :
     
   • It is also convenient to use the symmetrical algorithm (here the red arrows are counter-clockwise turns):

     (3.b) Symmetrical to (3.a)

   • Note: performing one of these algorithms twice is equivalent to performing the other. In some cases, you will need to perform the algorithm more than once :
   • Two correctly oriented corners :

     	=		=		+
     	=		=		+
     	=		=		+

   • No correctly oriented corner :

     	=		=		+
     	=		=		+

   • More generally, apply (3.a) in those cases:
     

     Two correctly oriented corners :
     No correctly oriented corner :
3. 3
   Permute the edges. You will need to know only one algorithm for this step. Check whether one or several edges are already in the proper position (the orientation does not matter at this point).
   • If all the edges are in their correct positions, you are done for this step.
   • If one edge only is correctly positioned, use the following algorithm :

     (4.a)

   • Or its symmetrical :

     (4.b) Symmetrical to (4.a)

     
     Note : performing twice one of these algorithms is equivalent to performing the other.
   • If all four edges are incorrectly positioned, perform one of the two algorithms once from any side. You will then have only one edge correctly positioned.
4. 4
   Orient the edges. You will need to know two algorithms for that last step :

   		Dedmore "H" Pattern
   											(5)
   		Dedmore "Fish" Pattern
   													(6)

   • Note the DOWN, LEFT, UP, RIGHT, sequence to most of the Dedmore "H" and "Fish" algorithms. You really have only one algorithm to remember since :

     (6) =

     + (5) +

   • If all four edges are flipped, perform the "H" pattern algorithm from any side, and you will have to perform that algorithm one more time to solve the cube.
5. 5
   Congratulations! Your cube should now be solved.