Cube RoomCUBE ROOMThe letter in a cube move tells you which face to turn. The symbol after it tells you the direction or amount. Read one move correctly before linking several together, and an algorithm stops looking like a secret code.
Six letters for six faces
U means the upper face and D the bottom. R and L mean right and left; F and B mean front and back. Choose an orientation first and keep that frame of reference. In Cube Room, dragging the camera changes how you look at the cube, not the names of its faces.
A plain R means a quarter turn clockwise when looking directly at the right face. It does not mean whichever face happens to appear on the screen's right, and it does not rotate the whole cube to the right.
Primes and the number 2
U', often typeset as U′, means a 90° counterclockwise top-face turn. The prime means the inverse direction, not “repeat the previous move.” R2 means a 180° right-face turn. Either direction gives the same final state for a half turn.
Read U' R2 F as: top counterclockwise, right half turn, front clockwise. Complete the three moves in order, not simultaneously. Spaces separate moves; parentheses in learning material often make groups easier to read.
Use the controls in Cube Room
Free practice and timed challenges provide face buttons. They default to clockwise. Select “Counterclockwise” or “180° half turn” before clicking a face to change the turn type. The keyboard letters R, L, U, D, F and B turn faces; hold Shift with a letter for the inverse. Shift alone does not turn anything.
There is currently no dedicated half-turn keyboard shortcut in free practice. Use the half-turn option with a button, or press the same letter twice, waiting for the first turn to finish. Key presses during animation are not queued. The algorithm workshop's setup exercise has its own angle selector.
Check your understanding with reversible moves
From a solved cube, make R, pause to look, then make R'. All six faces should be restored. Next try U2 followed by U2; this should also return to the start. Open a move in the scramble record and compare its explanation with your own reading.
If a letter feels confusing after changing the view, read clockwise and viewpoint. To undo an entire sequence, read inverse algorithms. Adding primes without reversing the order is not enough.
Now, make it click.
Open the related exercise. Check the case and orientation before making the moves. Reading does not change your cube; practice progress is saved in this browser.
Open the exercise →Sources and further reading
Cube Room wrote this guide around its own practice examples. The sources below help verify basic concepts or provide further study; this is not a verbatim translation of their material. Cube Room is not affiliated with these providers.