Cube Timer

How to use the cube timer

Scramble your cube with the moves shown; the picture beside them is what it should look like afterwards, with white on top and green in front. Then hold the space bar, or touch and hold the timer on a phone, until the time turns green, and let go to start. Press any key or tap anywhere on the timer to stop. The next scramble is ready straight away.

Each time can be marked +2 or DNF, or deleted, from the list. Times are kept in this browser only, separately for each puzzle, and nothing is sent anywhere. Copy times puts the whole session, with its scrambles, on your clipboard.

Scrambles made the way competitions make them

Turning a cube at random for twenty-five moves does not mix it evenly: some positions come up far more often than others. Competition scrambles start from the other end. They pick a position at random, every one of the 43 quintillion equally likely, work out a short way to solve it, and read that backwards. The 3x3 scrambles here are made that way, which is why they look a little irregular and come out at around 20 moves.

The 2x2, Pyraminx and Skewb positions are solved perfectly, so their scrambles are as short as they can possibly be, and the page tells you how many moves that position takes at best. Can you match it? The 2x2, Pyraminx and Skewb solvers will show you the way.

Averages, inspection and penalties

Averages follow the competition rules. An average of 5 drops your best and worst time and averages the middle three; an average of 12 drops one best and one worst as well. A DNF counts as your worst time, so one DNF can be dropped, but two make the average a DNF. Single times are cut to hundredths and averages rounded, as at a competition.

Tick 15-second inspection to practise with competition inspection. Press once to start the countdown, look the cube over, then hold and let go to start as usual. Starting after 15 seconds costs 2 seconds, and after 17 the solve is a DNF, exactly as the rules say.

Lost the scramble halfway?

It happens to everyone. Paint the cube as it is into the Rubik's Cube solver and it gives you the moves back to solved, so you can start the next scramble from a clean cube. When you want a break from algorithms altogether, our mechanical puzzles are the opposite kind of challenge: no notation, nothing to memorise, and usually only one way it all goes together. There are more solvers on the puzzle tools page.