Ten-year-old Polish speedcuber Teodor Zajder set a new 3x3 Rubik's Cube record at an unbelievable 2.76 seconds at an official WCA competition in Gdańsk, Poland, setting the first ever official sub-3 world record. 🎉
💰He's bringing home $14.000 (¥100.000) prize money offered by the GAN speedcube company for the first sub-3, taking a big chunk of their $130.000 prize pool. Making $14K in just 2.7 seconds translates to a pretty good $18 million hourly wage.
The New Rubik's Cube World Record: 2.76 Seconds
Most people expected one of the two dominant speedcubers,
● Xuanyi Geng (耿暄一), the previous record holder or
● Yiheng Wang (王艺衡), the current average of 5 record holder
to be the first to break the 3-second barrier.
They both had already come within 0.1 seconds of it. If we looked at the list of the fastest solves of all time just a day before this record, those two cubers occupied the top five spots, while Teodor Zajder was only ranked #378 with a personal best of 4.09 seconds (not even a sub-4).
That means his very first sub-4 solve turned out to be this historic sub-3.🤯
Best 3x3 singles in March 2026.
Before this solve, there had been only six official times under 3.1 seconds.
Interestingly, Teodor was only two years old when the first sub-4 solve was achieved by Yusheng Du with his famous 3.47 world record: a massive and unexpected leap at the time.
The first sub-5 (under 5 seconds) world record was set by Lucas Etter in 2015.
What Is the Current Rubik's Cube World Record?
| Record | Time | Holder | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Single Record 🏆 | 2.76 sec | Teodor Zajder | February 2026 |
| Previous Record | 3.05 sec | Xuanyi Geng | April 2025 |
| Current Average Record | 4.03 sec | Yiheng Wang | April 2025 |
Teodor Zajder is one of the fastest rising young speedcubers, already competing in more than 60 official competitions. He previously held the 2×2 world record with a 0.43-second solve and is ranked among the world's top competitors by average. Teodor set the current 3×3 world record using a GAN 12 speedcube. You can follow his solves and competition highlights on his YouTube channel where you can watch unboxing videos in English, competition videos and more.
Teodor Zajder's official WCA profile (ID: 2021ZAJD03).
Why This Record Is Different
-
3️⃣ This is the first official sub-3 second solve in history.
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He beat the previous record by a massive 0.29 seconds📉 an enormous improvement at this level.
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This was Teodor's first ever official sub-4 single 😮 and it jumped straight into sub-3.
For years, breaking 3 seconds was considered almost impossible - the psychological limit of human speedcubing.
Sub-4 became normal. Sub-3 changed everything.
Scramble & Solve
The record was set at an official World Cube Association (WCA) competition held at Primary School No. 48 in Gdańsk, Poland.
For a world record to count, it must be:
- Done at an official WCA competition
- Using computer-generated random scrambles (TNoodle)
- Judged and verified according to strict WCA regulations
Teodor's scramble was:
L B R2 B' R2 U2 F D R2 U R2 F2 D2 R U B L2
Although the cube appeared partially solved, optimal solvers show that the position required 16 moves optimally - completely normal for a random scramble.
Reconstruction
x' // inspection
r' U F U' r U' r' U2 r' U r // XXXCross
R U2' R2' U' R U R U2' R' // 4th pair
U' F' r U R' U' r' F R // ZBLL
29 Moves / 2.76 Seconds = 10.50 TPS
extremely efficient compared to the typical 40 - 60 move CFOP solve.
Highlights:
- Advanced triple X-cross start
- Smart F2L pair control
- Intentional last-pair insertion to influence last layer
- ZBLL finish (skipping separate OLL and PLL)
Is It Luck?
Yes - and no.
Luck has always been part of single world records. Scrambles are random from 43 quintillion possible cube states where easy-looking blocks can appear, but dozens of competitors received the same scramble that day. Only one of them turned it into a record.
As one speedcuber put it: Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
What the Community Is Saying
The reaction across YouTube and the SpeedSolving forum was immediate:
- "We just witnessed history."
- "This is the most shocking WR in years."
- "First sub-3 ever."
- "I don't see this being broken anytime soon."
Polish fans flooded the comments with national pride, celebrating a historic European breakthrough after years of Chinese dominance in 3x3 singles.
Future Expectations
The jump from 3.05 to 2.76 wasn't incremental. It was a leap nobody expected to be this big. Speedcubing has now officially entered the sub-3 era.
It took 2,633 days (almost eight years) to go from sub-4 to sub-3, nearly twice as long as any previous barrier. The surprising part isn't the distant sub-2 barrier: it's how fast the first official sub-3 already is. Many top cubers have likely achieved unofficial sub-3 solves, but 2.76 in competition is a completely different level: it requires an exceptional scramble, perfect inspection, and flawless execution under pressure.
Records like this don't just push the limit forward - they redefine what the community believes is possible. Now the questions begin: Will Tymon Kolasiński reclaim the European record? Will more sub-3 solves follow? And one day, could the impossible happen again with an official sub-2? 🎉
Want to reach this level yourself? Start by mastering the advanced CFOP method and explore cubing terminology to understand the techniques used in this historic solve.
