Sujan Feist, a computer science student at the University of Cincinnati, has tied his own world record for the fastest average solve of a 2x2 Rubik's Cube, clocking 0.86 seconds across five attempts at a competition in Mississippi this month.
Feist set the original mark last year at a competition in Coshocton, Ohio, and this outing matched it rather than beating it — his five timed solves came in at 0.85, 2.97, 0.81, 0.91 and 0.66 seconds, with the World Cube Association's scoring method dropping the fastest and slowest runs before averaging the rest, according to the university.
The result also extended a rarer streak: it was Feist's 17th official sub-one-second average, a feat achieved by only seven cubers in World Cube Association history. He has now collected 62 gold medals across sanctioned competitions, the university said.
The 2x2, a smaller cousin of the standard 3x3 Rubik's Cube, has more than 3.6 million possible scrambled positions despite its simplicity, and top solvers typically need 13 to 15 turns to return it to a solved state. Feist's speed comes from memorizing move sequences that let him solve the puzzle almost before he finishes looking at it.
I solved my first cube around the age of 9, then proceeded to get my time on the 3x3 cube down to 20 seconds. I quickly got the 2x2 cube down to five seconds.
Sujan Feist
Feist's cubing career has been on an upward trajectory since he arrived at UC. In July 2025, he won the Rubik's WCA World Championship in Seattle, posting a winning 3x3 average of 1.17 seconds, according to the school's earlier coverage of his career.
Speedcubing has grown from a novelty pastime into an organized sport with a global governing body, regional qualifiers and a steadily falling world-record ceiling as competitors refine both finger technique and the mechanical cubes themselves, which now use magnetized pieces to snap into alignment. For now, Feist's 0.86-second average stands as the benchmark the rest of the 2x2 field is chasing — including, for the moment, Feist himself.
