How to Solve a 2x2 Rubik's Cube Step by Step (Easy)

2x2 algorithms

Quick summary: these three algorithms are all you need. Hold the cube with white on the bottom and yellow on top. How to use each one is explained in the three steps further down.

Step 1, put a white corner into layer 1: R U R'

Step 2, make the yellow face (the Sune algorithm): R U R' U R U2 R'

Step 3, move the yellow corners to their right spots: R' F R' B2 R F' R' B2 R2

At each step you only need to answer one question:

1. Step 1: which way is the white sticker of the corner you want to put in facing (right, front or up)?
2. Step 2: how many yellow stickers are on the top face (0, 1 or 2)?
3. Step 3: which side has two matching top stickers?

If you can't read R, U, F, R', U2 yet, see the section "How to turn a 2x2" below, or the Rubik's Cube notation page.

How is solving a 2x2 different from a 3x3?

• There are only 8 pieces, and they are all corners. A 2x2 has no edges and no centres (Wikipedia).
• No centres to "show the way". On a 3x3, the centre colour is the colour of the whole face. On a 2x2, you look at the corners you've already solved to know where the next corner goes.
• Far fewer positions. A 2x2 has 3,674,160 positions, and every one of them can be solved in at most 11 moves if a 180° turn counts as one move, or 14 moves if you only count quarter turns (Wikipedia).

You can solve a 2x2 with the same methods as a 3x3, treating it as a 3x3 whose edges and centres are already solved (Wikipedia). So you skip every step about edges and keep only the steps about corners.

A 2x2 has only two layers. Just like in the EasyRubic guide, layers are named by colour, not by position: layer 1 is the layer with the white stickers, layer 2 is the layer with the yellow stickers. All through this post, layer 1 is on the bottom and layer 2 is on top.

!A scrambled 2x2 Rubik's Cube, before you start solving Image: [Mike Gonzalez (TheCoffee) / Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pocket_cube_scrambled.jpg), CC BY-SA 3.0

How to turn a 2x2

How to hold it: white face on the bottom, yellow face on top, from start to finish. Put both thumbs on the front face and your other fingers behind. The front face is the one pointing at you. While you're doing an algorithm, don't change how you hold the cube: turning the whole cube by accident halfway through is the most common beginner mistake.

How to read the notation:

• R, L, U, D, F, B: the right, left, up (top), down (bottom), front and back faces.
• A letter on its own (for example R): turn that face clockwise, a quarter turn.
• An apostrophe (for example R'): turn it anticlockwise.
• A 2 (for example U2): turn it twice.

The direction is always the one you see when you look straight at the face you're turning, as if that face were a clock facing you. On a 2x2, each move turns exactly half the cube. The three moves you'll use most:

R: the right half turns, and its front stickers go up. R' is the opposite: the front stickers go down.

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

U: the top half turns, and its front stickers move to the left. With U' they move to the right.

F: the front half turns clockwise, and its top stickers move to the right and then down.

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

The back face (B) only shows up in the step 3 algorithm, as B2: turn the back half twice. Either direction gives the same result.

To turn more smoothly, turn R with your right wrist and flick U with your right index finger. Each move is shown with an animation in the post Rubik's Cube finger tricks. For a closer look at notation, see the post Rubik's Cube notation for beginners.

Step 1: Layer 1 (white)

Goal: the whole bottom face is white, and on each side, the two layer 1 stickers match.

Getting started: find any corner with a white sticker. Hold the cube so that corner's white sticker is on the bottom face. This corner is your anchor for the whole cube.

Unlike the 3x3, the 2x2 has no white cross, so you go straight to placing corners. This is step 1 of the 2x2 guide, where every case plays on a 3D cube.

Finding the spot for the next corner: two corners sitting next to each other in layer 1 must have matching stickers on the same side. For example, the white-red-green corner sits next to the white-green-orange corner, because both have a green sticker, and those two green stickers must be on the same face. On a cube with the standard colour scheme, white is opposite yellow, blue is opposite green and orange is opposite red (Wikipedia), so two opposite colours are never on the same corner.

What to do:

1. Turn the whole cube (white face still on the bottom) so the empty spot you want to fill is in layer 1, front right.
2. Find the white corner that belongs in that spot in layer 2. Turn U to bring it right above the empty spot.
3. Check which face that corner's white sticker is on, then follow the matching picture.

In the pictures below, the white face is on the bottom. The white corners keep their colours, and the yellow corners are greyed out.

White sticker on the right face

R U R'

Why the algorithm doesn't break the corners you've already placed: R lifts the empty spot up to layer 2, U moves the corner into place above it, and R' brings both back down. The white corner at back right gets pushed to front right by R, but it stays in layer 1, where U can't reach it, and then R' puts it back. Once you get this, you don't need to memorise anything: just remember "lift up, turn, put down".

White sticker on the front face

F' U' F

This is the mirror image of the case above, done with the front face instead of the right face. The idea is still "lift up, turn, put down".

White sticker on the top face

R U2 R' U', then R U R'

If the white sticker points up, you can't put the corner straight in. The first part turns the corner so its white sticker faces right, and the second part is just the algorithm from the first case.

The corner is already in layer 1 but wrong

The corner is in the wrong spot or twisted the wrong way: bring it to front right, do R U R' U' to push it up into layer 2, then put it in again as above. In the picture, the corner is in the right spot but its white sticker is on the right face: R U R' U', then R U R'.

1. You start with (input)
3. After the formula

Repeat until all 4 white corners are in. After each corner, check that the two corners next to each other in layer 1 have matching stickers on every side. The last corner is usually the hardest, because there is only one empty spot left: bring the empty spot to front right first, and only then look for the corner.

Step 2: The yellow face (Sune)

Goal: twist the layer 2 corners so the whole top face is yellow. The sides don't need to match yet.

The white face stays on the bottom. This whole step uses just one algorithm, called Sune (see the summary at the top of the post). Like the step 1 algorithm, Sune starts with R and ends with R', with only R, R' and U in between, so layer 1 goes back to how it was when the algorithm finishes.

While the yellow face isn't done, there are exactly 7 cases, named Sune, Antisune, H, Pi, U, T and L (SpeedSolving Wiki). Speedcubers use a separate algorithm for each case. Here you only need Sune: each time you do Sune with the cube held exactly as in the picture, the cube moves on to a case closer to the finish, until it's done.

• H, Pi and Antisune turn into Sune after one Sune.
• L and U turn into Antisune.
• T turns into Pi.

How to spot them: count the corners with a yellow sticker on the top face (0, 1 or 2), turn U until it matches one of the 7 pictures below, then follow it. In the pictures, the yellow corners keep their colours and layer 1 is greyed out.

The "after" picture for each case shows the fully solved cube so it's easier to see. On your cube, the yellow corners may still be in the wrong spots after this step: all that matters is that the whole top face is yellow.

Sune: one yellow sticker on top

The yellow sticker on top is at front left. The front right corner has its yellow sticker on the front face. Do Sune once.

Antisune: one yellow sticker on top, the other way round

The yellow sticker on top is at front left. The front right corner has its yellow sticker on the right face. Do Sune, U2, then Sune.

H: no yellow on top, two pairs facing each other

Two yellow stickers on the left face and two yellow stickers on the right face. Do Sune twice.

Pi: no yellow on top, one pair on the left

Two yellow stickers on the left face, one on the front face and one on the back face. Do Sune, U', then Sune.

L: two yellow stickers on top, diagonal from each other

The front right and back left corners have yellow on top. The front left corner has its yellow sticker on the front face. Do Sune, Sune, U2, then Sune.

T: two yellow stickers on top, the other two facing opposite ways

The two back corners have yellow on top. The front left corner has its yellow sticker on the left face, and the front right corner has its yellow sticker on the right face. Do Sune, U2, Sune, U', then Sune.

U: two yellow stickers on top, the other two both facing front

The two back corners have yellow on top. Both front corners have their yellow sticker on the front face. Do Sune, U', Sune, U2, then Sune.

If you find the cases hard to tell apart, open step 2 of the 2x2 guide: every case plays on a 3D cube, one move at a time. For more on Sune and its reverse, see the post The Sune and Antisune algorithms.

Step 3: Move the yellow corners to their right spots

Goal: move the 4 layer 2 corners to their right spots so they match layer 1. Once this step is done, the cube is solved.

This step's algorithm, called the A-perm in the 3x3 post, is: R' F R' B2 R F' R' B2 R2

The algorithm swaps three layer 2 corners around in a circle. The front left corner and all of layer 1 stay put. The yellow face stays yellow after the algorithm.

How to spot the case: keep the yellow face on top. Look at the top row of the 4 sides and find a side with two matching top stickers, like a pair of headlights. Headlights tell you those two corners are already in the right place compared with each other. In the two pictures below, all 8 corners keep their colours.

One pair of headlights: turn U so the side with the headlights is at the back, then do the algorithm once.

No headlights on any side: two diagonal corners need to swap. Do the algorithm once, holding the cube any way. Now there is exactly one pair of headlights: bring it to the back and do the algorithm again. The picture below shows the algorithm, U, then the algorithm.

Headlights on all four sides: the corners are already in place, no algorithm needed.

Finally, turn U so layer 2 matches layer 1. Your 2x2 is solved. Every case plays on a 3D cube in step 3 of the 2x2 guide.

Common mistakes when solving a 2x2

• Layer 1 breaks after an algorithm. This is almost always because you changed how you were holding the cube halfway through, or did U where you needed R. Keep the white face on the bottom and count the moves out loud while you're still getting the hang of it.
• Layer 1 is all white but the sides don't match. The white face is done but the corners aren't paired up right. Find two corners next to each other that don't have matching stickers on their shared side, bring one to front right and redo it following the section "The corner is already in layer 1 but wrong".
• You keep doing Sune but the yellow face never finishes. Check how you're holding the cube before every Sune: turn U so it matches the picture for your case exactly. Doing Sune from the wrong angle still keeps layer 1, but it can send the cube to a different case.
• Step 3 done twice and still not solved. The headlights must be at the back, not the front or the side.
• Exactly one corner is twisted in place and everything else is solved. On a 2x2, only 7 corners can be twisted independently; the twist of the 8th is decided by the other 7 (Wikipedia). So no algorithm can fix this case: the cube has been twisted by hand or put back together wrong. How to fix it is in the post A Rubik's Cube that can't be solved.

If you get stuck on a 3x3, see the post Common mistakes when solving a Rubik's Cube.

You already know almost half of the 3x3 method

The three algorithms in this post, the corner algorithm, Sune and the algorithm that moves the yellow corners to their right spots, are all part of the layer by layer method for the 3x3. When you move on to the 3x3, you only need to add the steps "White cross", "Layer 2 edges", "Yellow cross" and "Move the yellow edges to their right spots".

To see the whole path, from your first cube to the 6x6, CFOP and Roux, see the post How to solve a Rubik's Cube for beginners.

Practise with EasyRubic

The EasyRubic 2x2 guide follows exactly the three steps in this post, with every case playing on a 3D cube. Once you can solve it without looking at the guide, time yourself and do it again and again until you can spot each case at a glance. Tips for memorising faster are in the post How to remember Rubik's Cube algorithms.

Get EasyRubic and practise step by step.

What's next

The layer by layer way is easy to remember, but you have to repeat Sune a lot. Once you can solve it reliably, the next step is solving the 2x2 faster with Ortega: still 3 steps, but each case has its own algorithm, so you need fewer moves.

To see the whole road after Ortega, from CLL to EG, see the post Advanced 2x2.

Video

The 2x2 world record is currently 0.39 seconds, set by Ziyu Ye (China) at Hefei Open 2025, as of 16 October 2026 (WCA API, WCA). The video below from the Eden Ye channel shows that solve:

See the records for other events in the post Rubik's Cube world records 2026.

Sources

• Pocket Cube – Wikipedia
• Rubik's Cube – Wikipedia
• OLL – SpeedSolving Wiki
• WCA API – Records
• WCA API – Ziyu Ye's results