Rubik's Solver

2x2 Cube Solver (Pocket Cube) — 3D

Paint the 3D Pocket Cube below to match your real 2x2x2: drag to rotate the view, pick a colour and click the stickers, then hit Solve!. The solver finds a shortest possible solution — never more than 11 turns — and animates every move.

Entry instructions · Try a worked example · Position rejected?

Loading the puzzle…

 

A guide for your physical puzzle

How to solve your Pocket Cube

When this tool helps

Use the 2×2 solver when your cube is mixed up and you want a route from the position in your hands, or when a nearly solved cube has a few corners that you cannot place. You do not need to recognise an algorithm case: the eight corner pieces supply the complete input.

Check which puzzle you have

Six square faces, four stickers on each face, and eight corner pieces. There are no separate centre or edge pieces. Choose this solver for a standard 2×2×2, not a 2×2×3 cuboid.

Before you press Solve

  1. Choose a front face and an upper face on the physical cube. Keep that grip while entering the colours; turn the on-screen camera to inspect the hidden faces.
  2. Enter all 24 stickers. Read each corner as a group of three colours. If one colour occurs more than four times, check the back and lower faces before trying to solve.
  3. Use the Down–Back–Left corner as your reference during playback. The solution uses U, R and F, so that corner stays in place while the other pieces move around it.

Read the moves

U turns the upper layer, R the right layer, and F the front layer. A plain letter is a 90° clockwise turn when looking straight at that face from outside the cube. An apostrophe reverses it; 2 means 180°. A half turn counts as one move here.

    Follow the answer on your physical puzzle

    1. After entering the colours, compare the three stickers of your Down–Back–Left reference corner with the model. Hold that corner in place while you read the first returned move; the screen’s chosen solved orientation follows this reference.
    2. Use Next for one move, make that turn on the physical cube, and check the corners carried by the layer. For a half turn, finish the full 180° before comparing. Continue only when the physical and on-screen positions agree.
    3. At the end, inspect all six faces. Four matching stickers on just one face are not enough: the side colours of its corners must also agree with their neighbours. If a mismatch remains, return to the first differing checkpoint rather than repeating the entire answer.

    Turn the result into practice

    Once solved, perform R, U and F2 while keeping the reference corner fixed. Predict which move you must undo first, then follow the illustrated example below. This is practice in tracking complete corners and reversing a route. To solve a different scramble without the tool, you would need a general solving method; memorising this one answer will not cover every position.

    Practise with a reproducible setup and illustrated undo sequence below.

    Worked example · checked 22 September 2026

    Three turns, and why you undo the last one first

    Start with a solved 2×2. Keep the Down–Back–Left corner in the same place and perform R, then U, then F2. All six faces now contain mixed colours even though you made only three turns. You do not solve one coloured face at a time here: you retrace the changes to whole corner pieces.

    For this exercise, begin with a solved physical puzzle. Make the setup moves below before following the undo sequence. The example replaces the model’s colours; it cannot change the puzzle in your hands.

    Match the diagram’s reference colours

    Up: white; Down: yellow; Front: green; Back: blue; Right: red; Left: orange. Your toy may use a different scheme. Match the face positions and move directions rather than re-sticking the toy to match these colours. Each face is shown from outside; the diagrams are face maps, not cut-out assembly instructions.

    Set up: R U F2

    1. R: Turn the RIGHT layer a quarter turn CLOCKWISE, looking at the cube from the right.
    2. U: Turn the TOP layer a quarter turn CLOCKWISE, looking down at the top face.
    3. F2: Turn the FRONT layer a half turn (180°, either direction).

    F2 is its own inverse: another half turn restores what that half turn changed. U needs U' and R needs R'. Reversing only the directions, without reversing the order, would act on corners that are no longer in the same places.

    Undo: F2 U' R'

    1. F2: Turn the FRONT layer a half turn (180°, either direction).
    2. U': Turn the TOP layer a quarter turn COUNTER-CLOCKWISE, looking down at the top face.
    3. R': Turn the RIGHT layer a quarter turn COUNTER-CLOCKWISE, looking at the cube from the right.
    Starting position after the setup Up: yellow Y Up: blue B Up: white W Up: white W Down: green G Down: green G Down: yellow Y Down: blue B Right: orange O Right: blue B Right: yellow Y Right: red R Left: red R Left: green G Left: white W Left: orange O Front: green G Front: yellow Y Front: red R Front: red R Back: orange O Back: orange O Back: blue B Back: white W UpDownRightLeftFrontBack
    0. Starting position after the setup
    After F2 Up: green G Up: green G Up: white W Up: white W Down: blue B Down: yellow Y Down: yellow Y Down: blue B Right: white W Right: blue B Right: red R Right: red R Left: yellow Y Left: green G Left: orange O Left: orange O Front: red R Front: red R Front: yellow Y Front: green G Back: orange O Back: orange O Back: blue B Back: white W UpDownRightLeftFrontBack
    1. After F2
    After U' Up: green G Up: white W Up: white W Up: green G Down: blue B Down: yellow Y Down: yellow Y Down: blue B Right: red R Right: red R Right: red R Right: red R Left: orange O Left: orange O Left: orange O Left: orange O Front: yellow Y Front: green G Front: yellow Y Front: green G Back: blue B Back: white W Back: blue B Back: white W UpDownRightLeftFrontBack
    2. After U'
    After R' Up: white W Up: white W Up: white W Up: white W Down: yellow Y Down: yellow Y Down: yellow Y Down: yellow Y Right: red R Right: red R Right: red R Right: red R Left: orange O Left: orange O Left: orange O Left: orange O Front: green G Front: green G Front: green G Front: green G Back: blue B Back: blue B Back: blue B Back: blue B UpDownRightLeftFrontBack
    3. After R'

    Sticker letters: W white · Y yellow · G green · B blue · R red · O orange.

    After F2, the front half turn has been undone. After U', only the original right turn remains. R' then restores six uniform faces. The reference corner never moves.

    This undo sequence is guaranteed to reverse this setup. It is not a general recipe for every scramble or a promise of the shortest route. The automatic solver may find a different valid answer.

    Then press Solve and compare its answer with the worked route. The diagrams and written steps above remain available without JavaScript or WebGL.

    When something does not match

    The colours are counted correctly, but it will not solve.

    Counts alone do not describe a valid cube. A corner with a reflected colour order or one corner twisted in place cannot be produced by normal turns. Recheck the three stickers around each physical corner, especially corners copied from the back view.

    My solved colours face a different direction.

    A 2×2 has no fixed centres. The reference corner determines the final colour scheme. Compare the faces meeting at that corner with the solved-colours line above the steps rather than assuming white must finish on top.

    My cube stops matching halfway through.

    Pause immediately. Undo the last physical turn and press Back once. Check whether you moved the whole cube, used the opposite face, or read a counter-clockwise move as clockwise.

    For help with colour entry, grip and playback, read the solving guide. See three illustrated positions with correct counts that still cannot be solved. If the result still looks wrong, send a reproducible bug report.

    What this solver guarantees

    The search covers all 3,674,160 positions with one reference corner fixed. Our exhaustive tests reproduce a maximum shortest distance of 11 moves. This guarantee uses the face-turn metric: R2 costs one move, just like R.

    Mathematical reference: Jaap Scherphuis’s 2×2×2 position counts and distances. The instructions above describe this site’s controls and conventions.

    Read about our verification methods or choose another puzzle.