Sample solution

To help you better understand the tasks

by Ruwix

This example solution contains answers to help you understand the questions and help you fill your workbook. I’ve put the questions, answers and images in rich-text format for a better readability. Remember that you’ll have to send your answers in plain text format (.txt file) and the images separately.


1. Name: Johnny86
2. Email:
3. Age: 23
4. Country: Monaco

1. Picture Challenge

11. The Rubik’s Cube at a tourist attraction.
I took this picture at the Post Medieval Fortress in Târgu Mures (Marosvásárhely), Romania which was built in 1602 and it’s lying on 11 acres.

cetatea medievala targu mures
11.jpg

12. An animal with a Rubik’s Cube.
This is my dog Maya thinking about solving the cube.

maya doggy
12.jpg

13. The Rubik’s Cube in an unusual place.
The fridge is definitely an unusual place for the cube.

in the fridge
13.jpg

14. An unusual cube.
We were really excited to come across this 80’s themed bar with this huge Rubik’s Cube billboard in Greece so we immediately took a picture of it. Notice the unusual color scheme with the orange-red pieces and the white-white-white corner.

unusual rubiks cube
14.jpg

2. Creative challenge

21. Take the Rubik’s Cube Quiz and add 3 new puzzle-related questions with 4 possible answers, the first one being correct.
Your questions must be different from the existing ones.

Question 1: Who holds the Rubik’s Cube single world record and what’s his time?
correct answer: Feliks Zemdegs – 4.73
incorrect answer 1: Lucas Etter – 4.90
incorrect answer 2: Mats Valk – 4.74
incorrect answer 3: Minh Thai – 4.69

Question 2: Which one of the following is not an electronic cube?
correct answer: Geranium puzzle
incorrect answer 1: Rubik’s Touch
incorrect answer 2: Futuro Cube
incorrect answer 3: Rubik’s Spark

Question 3: What is the easiest way to start disassembling a Rubik’s Cube?
correct answer: Twist a layer by 45o and pop out an edge piece.
incorrect answer 1: Take off the cap of the center pieces and remove the screws.
incorrect answer 2: Pull out a corner piece.
incorrect answer 3: Twist the white face counterclockwise 10 times to unscrew the layer.

22. Design a Rubik’s Cube shaped house and describe it in your workbook. You can draw, build a LEGO or Minecraft house or use any other method to illustrate your idea. Take a picture of your design. There are many Rubik-shaped buildings which you can use as inspiration.
I drew a cube-shaped 3-story house with a twisted upper layer which would make place for balconies on the top floor. The staircase would be in the middle core and I could climb up to the rooftop. The building would be painted as a scrambled cube, having a door or a window on each “sticker”. I would use stained window glass and painted doors to belnd in with the design.

3x3 cube building design
22.jpg

23. Invent a trick / magic trick with the Rubik’s Cube and explain it. If you can’t come up with a Rubik trick you can simply describe an existing magic trick with the cube. Take a picture if that helps you explain your idea.
First I was thinking about describing how to pull a Rubik’s Cube out of a top hat, then I realized that I know a better trick specially with the Rubik’s Cube. With this simple trick you can even win some money if you bet with your friends that you will manage to balance the cube on its edge. Twist the middle layer a little bit to make a little stand to hold the cube on its edge. The cheat is barely noticable, as seen on the image.

twisty magic trick
23.jpg

24. Describe how you would popularize cubing if you would be the advertising executive of Rubik™.
I would think about making some viral ads like The Epic Split Volvo ad with Van Damme. In the world of marketing and advertising any exposure is a good exposure so I would also think about a controversial ad campaign which would be widely shared on social media.
I would also encourage teachers to talk about cubing in schools and extracurricular activities.
25. Come up with a new puzzle-related task/question for the next round of this competition.
Create a funny Rubik’s Cube meme for this list: https://ruwix.com/the-rubiks-cube/rubiks-cube-memes/

3. Hard-working Challenge

31. Watch any movie featuring the Rubik’s Cube. Spot the scene with the cube and briefly describe what happens in the following scene in the movie. This way you can prove that you’ve found the cube in the film.
I’ve chosen to watch Wall-e. He took the cube out of a box and put it on a shelf. In the next scene he watched TV and he went to sleep because of a sandstorm.

32. Create a new Rubik’s Cube pattern. You can combine existing models. Make sure that your invention is not listed already (check the second page of the pattern gallery too). Calculate a short algorithm for your pattern with the solver and note it in your workbook.
I crossed the snake and the checkerboard patterns.
I named this the ZZ-Line pattern: R L U2 R L’ U2 F2 R2 U2 F2 D2 B2 L2 U2 L2

33. Use the 15-puzzle maker to create a fun and challenging sliding puzzle with a new image. Add your custom link in the workbook.
I used the image of celebrities playing with the Rubik’s Cube because the tiled images give an extra difficulty to the solution: https://ruwix.com/online-puzzle-simulators/sliding-15-puzzle?scale=1&rept=1&scram=1&nums=1&pic=https%3A%2F%2Fruwix.com%2Fpics%2Farticles%2Fcelebrities%2Fcubing-celebrities.jpg

34. Add the link of cube3x3.com to a website. The link needs to be clickable and accessible without login. Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites don’t count because that would be too easy. Try to find a forum, comment section, blog which allows you to add the link.
Note the URL of the page where you added the link so we can check it.
I added a link to the SpeedSolving.com forum.
The thread can be seen here: https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/threads/cube-3×3-competition.64511/

35. Find a solution for the scramble below which is shorter than the scramble (27 moves). You can use the online Rubik’s Cube solver to calculate the solution for this question.
F B2 R’ – D2 B R – U D’ R – L’ D’ F’ – R2 D F2 – B’ U F – B’ L2 U2 – L2 F’ B – U2 L2 U
The solution in 26 steps: U’ L2 U2 B’ F L2 R F U F L2 B L D F’ U’ R2 F’ D’ L2 U2 D’ R2 L2 U’ R2