In World Cube Association (WCA) competitions, scrambles are generated using a random-state algorithm. The cube is held with white on top and green in front before applying the sequence. This ensures every legal state is equally likely. You can follow our video tutorial to mimic the exact process.

For official-style scrambles, hold the cube with the white face on top and the green face in front before applying the moves. This standard orientation ensures scramble sequences produce consistent results across cubes.

However, in this tutorial, you’ll see the yellow face on top to simulate the cube’s position during an actual solve, making it easier to follow along visually.

A WCA-standard 3×3 scramble is usually around 20 moves long, ensuring the cube is well mixed and fair for solving practice. You can find examples in our sample scramble videos and on official scramble generators.

A random-state scramble produces all possible cube states with equal probability, which is required for fair competition. A random-move scramble simply applies a set number of random moves, but it may not be evenly distributed across all cube states. Our tutorial explains both methods and why random-state is recommended.

Two common reasons: wrong orientation (the cube wasn’t held white-top, green-front for official style scrambles) or a move was performed incorrectly.

Tips: Keep the orientation fixed while making each move, and work on tricky notations slowly since a single move in the wrong direction can change the scrambled state.