The pocket cube, done properly

A 2×2 is the corners of the big cube with everything else gone, which makes it the friendliest place to start and a real event in its own right, solved in competition in under two seconds. Two algorithms finish it. Both are checked against every case.

Everything the 2×2 asks for, the 3×3 journey teaches at full size: the same notation, the same Sune, the same idea of orient-then-place. This lane stands alone though. If a pocket cube is the first cube in the house, start here and graduate upwards.

First

Solve it

An intuitive first layer, then two algorithms: one to turn the top yellow, one to finish. About an evening.

Then

Get fast: the Ortega method

A face instead of a layer, seven orientation cases, five finishes. The standard competition method for the event.

The numbers behind the promise: the top face of a 2×2 can sit in 27 orientations, and repeating one algorithm, the Sune from Level 1, reaches yellow from every single one in at most 3 goes. The timer deals genuine random-state 2×2 scrambles when you are ready to count.

Sunes, at most, to yellow any 2×2 top. Checked against all 27 orientations at build time.

Checked by simulation before publishing: each position shown plus the moves shown must finish the job, every orientation claim is proved by enumeration of all 27 reachable tops, and the worst-case counts are computed, not promised.