If you’ve ever tried solving the Rubik’s cube, you know that it isn’t exactly easy. Even if you’re an experienced cuber and can solve it pretty quickly with your eyes closed, there are some speed cubers out there who can solve it in less than 10 seconds – one even solved it in under 5! How do they do it? In this article, we talk about their secrets to success and give you some tips on how to get better at the game yourself.

Understanding the Notation

There are six colors on a Rubik’s cube, one for each face. They are red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. When solving a puzzle you will have to rotate the faces of the puzzle to make sure that each face has an inner layer of every color. The first step is figuring out how many spots can be created by rotating one color at a time.

The Cross

To maximize your speed, you’ll want to follow this strategy:

1. Understand what a center cross is and how to set it up in as few moves as possible,

 2. Memorize some of the more popular shapes so you can recognize them easier and work on your solutions with fewer twists,

3. Practice at home before competing against other speed cubers by following this strategy:

1. Draw a diagram of the most basic solution

 2. Keep solving it until you can do it without looking at the puzzle

3. Reverse the orientation

4. Repeat for all six faces.

The F2L

The first step to solving a Rubik’s Cube is one of the most difficult and time consuming steps: F2L. The F2L is a set of 14 algorithms which must be executed in order to complete the first layer. This includes executing 4 sets of 3 different algorithms.

The next step is to execute 8 more sets of 2 other algorithm, called PLL or Permutation of Last Layer. However, there are many ways to execute this step because there are many ways that you can orient your pieces before executing PLL.

The OLL

This is how you solve a Rubik’s Cube in record time. The OLL is a series of steps that are designed to help speed cubers complete their puzzles as quickly as possible. It helps to have an understanding of what algorithms are, and how they work. However, we’ll be giving you all the information you need without bogging you down in algorithm knowledge.

1) Make sure your hands are on either side of your puzzle and know which colors will be facing outward once your puzzle is solved.

2) Look at the first two stickers, and determine which sticker will go where on each side of the puzzle based on color or location.

The PLL

This is how you solve a Rubik’s cube. Step-by-step instructions for speed cubers:

1) Solve the cross. This step is easy for speed cubers, since it can be done in about 10 seconds or less. But if you’re just learning how to do this, we recommend that you practice it a few times on your own before moving on to the rest of the steps.

2) Put each of the four corners together in pairs. This step should take about 20 seconds or less for speed cubers, but might take a little longer if this is your first time doing it.

3) Solve one side of edge pieces and then move onto another side until all edges are solved.