The Rubik’s Cube is a 3D combination puzzle invented in 1974 by Ernő Rubik, a Hungarian architect and professor. It is a mechanical puzzle consisting of a cube made up of smaller cubelets, typically with six faces, each originally covered by nine stickers in six solid colors: white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow.

The most common version is the 3x3x3 cube, which has six center pieces (one per face), twelve edge pieces (with two colored stickers each), and eight corner pieces (with three colored stickers). The center pieces are fixed in position and determine the color of each face.

The goal of the puzzle is to rotate the cube’s layers—along any of its three axes—so that all six faces return to having a uniform color. The cube starts in a solved state and becomes scrambled by rotating the sides in random sequences. Despite its simple appearance, the cube has over 43 quintillion possible combinations, but can always be solved in 20 moves or fewer (known as God’s Number in cube theory).

The Rubik’s Cube is not only a popular toy and brain teaser, but also an icon of mathematical thinking, problem-solving, and speedcubing competitions around the worl