A Rubik's Cube has 43 quintillion possible states, which is exactly why people assume solving one is about memory or genius. It isn't. Every cube is solved with the same repeatable, layer-by-layer method and a small handful of short move sequences. Learn the roadmap below and you'll go from scrambled to solved every single time — no luck involved.
First, the Notation
Each face has a letter: R (right), L (left), U (up), D (down), F (front), B (back). A letter on its own means turn that face a quarter-turn clockwise (as if you're looking straight at it). A letter with an apostrophe — R' , spoken “R prime” — means a quarter-turn anticlockwise. A letter followed by 2 means a half-turn. The centre piece of each face never moves relative to the others, so the centres tell you what colour each face will end up.
Step 1: The White Cross
Pick the white face and build a plus sign of white edges on it, making sure each edge's other colour lines up with the matching centre on the side. This step is done by intuition rather than algorithms — just slot each white edge into place and rotate the side faces so the second colour matches. Take your time here; a correct cross makes everything after it easier.
Step 2: The White Corners
Now fill the four white corners. Hold the cube with white on top, find a corner that belongs below an empty top slot, and position it in the bottom layer directly under where it needs to go. Then repeat the trigger R U R' U' until that corner rotates up into place with white facing the right way. Repeat for all four corners and your first layer is complete.
Step 3: The Middle Layer Edges
Flip the cube so the solved white layer is on the bottom. Find a top-layer edge with no yellow on it — that edge belongs in the middle layer. Line it up with its matching centre, then send it left or right with one of two mirror algorithms: to insert to the right, U R U' R' U' F' U F; to insert to the left, U' L' U L U F U' F'. Repeat until all four middle edges are home and two layers are done.
Step 4: The Yellow Cross
Turn the cube so yellow is on top. Make a yellow plus sign using the algorithm F R U R' U' F'. Depending on what you start with (a dot, an L-shape, or a line), you may run it once, twice or three times — the pattern progresses dot to L to line to cross. Don't worry about the yellow corners yet; just get the cross.
Step 5: Finishing the Last Layer
The final stage orients and positions the last pieces. To turn the remaining yellow corners face-up, use the “Sune” algorithm R U R' U R U2 R', repeating it (re-positioning the top each time) until the whole top face is yellow. What's left is permuting the last edges and corners into their correct spots, which takes two more short sequences. This last layer is the only part most beginners look up and drill a few times — once those two final algorithms are in muscle memory, the cube is fully solved.
The Takeaway
White cross, white corners, middle edges, yellow cross, then orient and permute the last layer. That's the entire beginner method: a fixed order plus about five short sequences. Go slowly, say the moves aloud as you make them, and within a few solves your hands will start to remember the triggers on their own.