Rubik's Cube Made Easy

Solve it with 1 simple algorithm (March 2025)

The Wrong Way

The traditional method for solving a Rubik's Cube involves memorizing a series of complex algorithms and applying them in a specific order. This can be daunting for beginners and often leads to frustration.

The problem stems from the fact that most instructions start by assigning a letter to all 6 faces of the cube:

Then they explain that each of those faces can be rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise (with a single quote for counter-clockwise). For example, L' means to rotate the Left face counter-clockwise, while L means to rotate it clockwise.

The result is a series of cryptic instructions that can be hard to follow and daunting to memorize. And it feels a little cruel when someone says that "the easiest way" to solve the cube looks like this...

  1. U' R' U F'
  2. F' U' R U
  3. U' R U
  4. R' D' R D R' D' R D R' D' R D R' D' R D R' D' R D
  5. F D F'
  6. R' D2 R D R' D' R
  7. U' L' U L U F U' F'
  8. U R U' R' U' F' U F
  9. U R U' R' U' F' U F U2 U R U' R' U' F' U F
  10. R U R' U R U2 R' U
  11. R U R' U R U2 R' U y2 U y' R U R' U R U2 R' U
  12. U R U' L' U R' U' L
  13. R' D' R D R' D' R D R' D' R D R' D' R D U R' D' R D R' D' R D U R' D' R D R' D' R D R' D' R D R' D' R D U R' D' R D R' D' R D U
Not kidding, those are the actual steps. And if you looked closely, you may have noticed a y2 and a y' in there, which refer to rotating the entire cube.

A Better Way

I recently discovered a much simpler way to solve the Rubik's Cube that only requires one simple algorithm that is very easy to remember and almost impossible to mess up. And, it's also much more intuitive.

First, we need to start with a fresh perspective. Set the cube down and turn it so the corner is facing us.

Now we can only see 3 sides, which we will call:

  • Top (yellow side in the picture)
  • Left (red side in the picture)
  • Right (green side in the picture)
Our algorithm will only turn the Left and Right sides.

Since we are only moving two sides, we can also simplify the instructions for how we rotate. Instead of talking about clockwise and counter-clockwise, we'll just describe the direction that the top corner (closest to us) is moving...

It will go Up or Down.

Here is a cube where only the top corner has any color, to make it stand out.

Tap the plus button (+) to move the Left side Down. Tap the minus button (-) to move the Left side Up.

Does that make sense?

The Algorithm

All you need to remember is: Down, Down, Up, Up — or if you prefer Double Down, Double Up.

You can start with the Left side or the Right side, it doesn't matter. The important thing is that you alternate between the two sides. So, if we start with the Right side, we would do:

  1. Right side Down
  2. Left side Down
  3. Right side Up
  4. Left side Up

Tap the plus button (+) under the cube to do it one step at a time. Or use the play button (▶) to see it all at once.

That's it! That's the entire algorithm, and it's the only one you need to remember.

Bullet Proof

The algorithms that other people recommend are easy to mess up, and then you end up with a scrambled cube. But this method is VERY user-friendly. Here are a few examples that show why it's unlikely that you will scramble your cube by accident when you use Down, Down, Up, Up.

If you get confused and swap steps 3 and 4, no worries. You'll just end up back where you started.

After you do the algorithm, you can easily undo it. Just do the algorithm again, but start with the opposite side.

If you repeat the algorithm 6 times in a row, you'll end up right back where you started. No risk of scrambling the cube.

This algorithm only affects the pieces on the 3 edges that you can see. We've grayed them out to show that nothing else changes.

How Things Move

Now that we have an algorithm, let's see how the pieces move when we use our Down, Down, Up, Up.

For starters, we will focus on just two pieces.

Use the plus button (+) to do the first move. Take note of where those pieces are after the first move. Then tap the play button (▶) to complete the algorithm.

Notice, that after the algorithm is finished, the two pieces are in the same place as they were after the first move!

This is super handy... It means that you can tell where these pieces will end up after the algorithm is complete, just by looking at the first move.

So, the algorithm can move an edge piece from the top to the front.

And, the algorithm can also move the top corner to the bottom.

Solve the Cube in Stages

Most other solutions have a long list of stages, like:

  1. White Edges
  2. White Corners
  3. Second Layer
  4. Yellow Cross
  5. Swap Yellow Edges
  6. Position Yellow Corners
  7. Orient Yellow Corners

But with our Down, Down, Up, Up algorithm, it all boils down to just 2 stages:

  1. Edges
  2. Corners

Check out the cubes below, if you are not sure what we mean by "edges" and "corners".

Edges
Corners

Solving the Edges

To start working on the edges, we need to pick a color to start with. It doesn't matter which one. Most people start with white, but you can pick any color that you want.

Flip the cube until there is an edge piece with your color on the Top. Then spin the cube until the center piece of the same color is on the Left or Right side. Feel free to rotate the Top of the cube if needed, to move the edge piece to the front (opposite the center square).

Let's assume you picked white, so here's a starting position. The red/white edge piece is on the Left side, so we will start the algorithm by turning the Left side Down. Notice (again) that the first move of our algorithm shows where the piece will be at the end.

One edge solved, now we need to do the same thing for the other 3 white edge pieces.

When trying to decide what piece to solve next, we always want to look for a piece that is neighbor to the pieces that we've already solved. In this case, after solving the red/white edge, the next piece should be either: the green/white edge or the blue/white edge.

Let's go look for the blue/white edge piece.

Press the play button (▶) to see how we flip the cube around to move the blue/white edge to the top, and then we spin the cube to put the white center square in the front (on the Left or Right side).

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Great! We found the blue/white edge piece, and we put it on top, and the white center square is on the Left side.

Now we just need to use our Down, Down, Up, Up algorithm to move the blue/white edge piece into place.

Tap the plus button (+) to do the first move, and make sure the piece is going where we want it. Then tap the play button (▶) to complete the algorithm.

Blue/white is done. Let's go find the next piece.

Next we will do the green/white edge piece. This one will be a little tricker.

Use the plus button (+) twice to move the green/white edge piece to the Top, and then keep tapping the plus sign (+) to spin the cube until you find the white center square.

Uh-oh, when the green/white edge piece is on top, there isn't any way to put the white center square on the Left or Right side, because it's on the bottom of the cube.

What to do?

Maybe Down, Down, Up, Up can save us 🤔

The white center square is on the bottom. Let's see what happens when we use our algorithm on the green/white edge piece.

We will start the algorithm from the Left side, because that's where the green/white edge piece is.

When you tap the play button (▶) we will run the algorithm, and then we will do a cube flip to put the green/white edge piece back on top.

Cool. Our algorithm moved the green/white edge piece to the front, and now when we flipped the cube to put the green/white piece back on top, the white center square is on the Right side. Now we can use the algorithm to put the green/white edge piece in place.

The 4th Edge

Putting the final edge piece in place is tricky, because our algorithm will "break" one of the edges that was already solved.

Tap the play button (▶) to run the algorithm, and see the issue.

That solved the orange/white piece, but the green/white edge piece has been dislodged.

To put the 4th edge piece in place, we need one of the solved edges to be in the wrong spot. Then, when we insert the final piece, it will push the other piece where it belongs (instead of breaking it).

But how can we do that? How can we get one (and only one) of the existing edges to be in the wrong place? It's good old Down, Down, Up, Up to the rescue again!

Here is a cube with 3 edges in the correct place. To move the green/white edge to the front BEFORE we run the Down, Down, Up, Up algorithm. That way, it will return to the top position when we insert the orange/white edge.

Tap the plus button (+) to move the green/white edge to the front, and then tap the play button (▶) to run the algorithm.

Now the orange/white and green/white edge pieces are in the correct place!

But now we have a new problem: the blue/white and red/white edges are both in the wrong place. (Drag the cube to see the blue/white is now matched up to the red center).

Oddly, this is better, because we can easily fix it. If we spin the white face around, we can run the algorithm to put the red/white edge piece in place and move the blue/white edge piece back to where it belongs, in one fell swoop.

To fix the blue/white and red/white we need to rotate the Left side (180 degrees). Then we run the algorithm. Then another 180 degree turn to return the Left side back to its original position.

Tap the plus button (+) to step through the moves.

  • Step 1: Rotates the Left side, to put the blue/white piece up front.
  • Step 2-5: Solves the red/white with Down, Down, Up, Up.
  • Step 6: Rotates the Left side back to its original position.

If that seems complicated, don't worry. There is another way to remember the process for solving the 4th edge piece. I just wanted to show you all the steps, to make it clear that the next explanation is NOT a new algorithm.

Breaking and Repairing

This bears repeating: We intentionally "break" a solved piece to solve a new piece. Then we can restore the broken piece afterwards.

This was one of the key insights that makes it possible to solve the Rubik's Cube with just one simple algorithm...

It's okay to break previously solved pieces (temporarily).

This strategy will come up again when we work on the corners. We will break some edges to solve a corner, and then we will repair the edges with our Down, Down, Up, Up algorithm.

Finishing the Edges

After you solve the edges on one side, pick a neighboring side and repeat the process.

After you've completed all the edges, the cube will look like this -- with a colorful plus sign on every face.

Then you can move on to stage 2... the corners.

Solving the Corners

After all the edges are solved, we can start with the corners.

To start, pick a color to put on the top. We'll assume you picked yellow. (If you take a glance at the bottom of the cube, you'll see that it is white.)

The process for solving the corners is to fix the bottom, one corner at a time. So, with yellow on top, we need to find white corners and move them from the top to the bottom.

As always, we will use our Down, Down, Up, Up algorithm to do this. Tap the play button (▶) to move the white/red/green corner from the top to the bottom.

Hurray! We fixed the bottom corner, but we also broke 3 edge pieces in the process. No worries, we can fix that easily.

How do we fix the edges that we broke while solving a corner?

With Down, Down, Up, Up of course 😉

The key is to first rotate the bottom to move the solved corner away from the front edge. Then we run the algorithm to fix the edges, and we finish by rotating the bottom face back to its original position.

Tap the plus button (+) to rotate the bottom face. Then tap the play button (▶) to run the algorithm and rotate the bottom face back to its original position.

  1. Rotate the bottom face to protect the corner piece.
  2. Use our Down, Down, Up, Up algorithm to fix the edges.
  3. Rotate the bottom face back to its original

Let's do another corner piece, but this time the white face is on the top.

Notice how whether we start with the Left or Right face, we can't get the white side facing down, where it belongs.

Let's try doing the algorithm a second time. This brings the corner piece back up to the top, but the colors will be arranged in a different direction. The white is no longer on top, so we can do the algorithm one more time, and the corner will move to the bottom with the white side facing down.

In short, if the bottom color is on the top of the corner piece, we need to do the algorithm 3 times. Tap the play button (▶) to run the algorithm thrice. Or use the plus button (+) to do it one step at a time -- and notice how the corner piece colors change direction as it moves up and down.

Note: This isn't a complete guide for solving all the corners, but it is the core technique. Until I get a chance to finish writing the rest of this article, you can use the following tips to figure it out...

Tips for solving the corners:

  • You don't have to repair the edges after each corner is solved. Just make sure to repair broken edges before you flip the cube (to work on a different face).
  • After you solve 3 of the corners on the bottom, flip the cube upside down to fix the corners on the other side.
  • When repairing broken edges, keep an eye on any top corners that you've already solved. If you break the top corners when fixing the edges, do the algorithm 3 more times -- that will fix the edges and corners.
  • If you end up with exactly two unsolved corners, flip the cube to put them both on the bottom, and then fix them.

The End?

Wow! That was an incredibly long-winded explanation for how you can solve a Rubik's Cube with one simple algorithm...

Down, Down, Up, Up

Edges first and then corners.

In hindsight, a video probably would have been a better way to explain it.

But I hope this article has given you a more intuitive way to solve the Rubik's Cube, or (at the very least) shown how a change in perspective can make a complex problem much easier to solve.