F2L — First Two Layers

In the beginner method you solved the first-layer corners, then the second-layer edges — two separate passes. F2L does both at once: each of the four bottom slots owns one white corner and one middle edge, and you insert them as a pair. Cross on the bottom, yellow up, four pairs — first two layers done.

This is the C→F step of CFOP, and it is where most solve time is won or lost.

Each slot's pair shares two colours: the corner is white + those two, the edge is exactly those two. Recognition means finding both pieces and answering two questions: which way does the white sticker face? and are the pieces joined or split? Everything else follows.

Hold the cube with the target slot at the front-right. Every demo below opens on the situation and the algorithm inserts the pair — watch how the pieces travel.

There are 41 basic F2L cases, and the full list is below — but learn the idea before the list. Every case reduces to the three insertions with a setup move or two. The universal recipe: hide the corner (turn it out of the way), set the edge, rejoin them. A piece stuck in a wrong slot? Insert anything into that slot to eject it, then solve from the top. When white faces up, tip it sideways with the trigger first (last demo above).

Once you can solve every case somehow, the list becomes what it should be: a catalogue of better answers to positions you already understand. That is where the speed is.

Every case below is held the same way: cross on the bottom, yellow on top, and the slot you are filling at the front-right. Each diagram shows the cube from the angle you actually hold it, with only the corner and edge belonging to that slot coloured in — so what you see is the shape to learn to spot. Open a case for the algorithm, alternative solutions, a scramble that sets it up, and a 3D walkthrough.

The 41 basic cases are the complete set — every position where both pieces are in the top layer or in their own slot. The advanced and expert groups that follow cover pieces trapped in the wrong slot; they are worth knowing, but only after the basics are automatic.

Solve the cross on the bottom without rotating the cube. While your hands insert one pair, your eyes find the next. Slow, continuous turning with no pauses beats fast turning with stops — every time. Count pairs, not moves; minimise whole-cube rotations (the left-hand mirror L′ U′ L family removes most of them, later).