Rubik's Cube solver

This is a free 3D Rubik's Cube solver that runs entirely in your browser. It scrambles a standard 3×3×3 cube, solves it with the Kociemba two-phase algorithm in about twenty moves, and animates every turn so you can follow the solution one move at a time. Nothing about your cube is sent to a server.

How to use the solver

1. 1

   The cube loads already scrambled. Press Scramble at any time for a new random position.

2. 2

   Press Solve. The solver runs in a background worker and returns a solution of roughly twenty moves.

3. 3

   Playback starts automatically. Pause, step forward or back one move, or change the speed as it runs.

4. 4

   Use the manual face buttons to turn any face yourself. Doing so clears the current solution, since it no longer applies.

Reading the solution: cube notation

Solutions are written in standard Singmaster notation. Each letter is one face of the cube, seen from the outside:

U

Up — the top face

R

Right — the right-hand face

F

Front — the face toward you

D

Down — the bottom face

L

Left — the left-hand face

B

Back — the face away from you

A letter on its own is a quarter turn clockwise. An apostrophe means counterclockwise, so R' is the right face turned counterclockwise. A 2 means a half turn, so U2 is the up face turned twice. Clockwise is always judged while looking directly at that face.

Why solutions are about twenty moves

A 3×3×3 cube has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 reachable positions, and every one of them can be solved in at most twenty moves — a result known as God's number. Searching for that provably shortest solution is expensive, so this solver uses Kociemba's two-phase method instead: phase one moves the cube into a restricted subgroup, and phase two finishes it inside that much smaller space. The result lands near twenty moves in milliseconds. More on how the algorithm works.