Watch Someone Solve A Rubik’s Cube In 3 Seconds & Demolish The World Record

Something astounding happened on June 11 — at least if you’re a huge fan of competitive Rubik’s Cube speed-solving. Max Park, a 21-year-old speed-solving phenom who famously dominates Rubik's Cube competitions around the world, recently broke the record for solving the 3x3x3 cube.

He completed the cube in 3.13 seconds at the World Cube Association’s Pride competition, demolishing the last-held record. That record, held by 9-year-old Yiheng Wang, was 4.69 seconds —and had been just 0.17 seconds faster than Park’s last record of 4.86 seconds.

Park’s sub-4-second solve is certainly noteworthy to any fans of Rubik’s Cube speed games or die-hard fans of “Speedcubers,” a documentary about Park’s experience competing as a high-level Cube solver along with Feliks Zemdegs, who is also considered one of the greatest speed-solvers of all time.

The documentary followed Park on his global journey to compete in Cube competitions — which, believe it or not, have been taking place for more than 40 years. The World Cube Association hosts the elite competitions only for the best of the best, who have to partake in qualifying matches to even make it to the World Cube Association (WCA) stage, according to Ruwix, the Rubik’s Cube Wiki page.

Park has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and his father Schwan Park says his son’s successes will hopefully inspire others.

“Max has been on an incredible and inspiring journey with Rubik's. He has already accomplished so many things in life, but to watch him break the speedcubing world record is a whole new level of achievement,” Schwan Park said in a statement. “As parents of an autistic child, we've seen firsthand how life-changing cubing has been toward Max's personal growth. We're so proud of him for his jaw-dropping feat, and we hope this encourages further acceptance, understanding and appreciation for talents within the autistic community.”

The competitive Rubik’s Cube world is legit. The WCA has a governing body that oversees all competitions to ensure fairness. The competitions to solve the Rubik’s cubes started in 1982, and quickly evolved into speed-solving — or “speedcubing” — as competitors became interested in solving it faster. Competitive “speedcubers” still utilize methods based on the decisions made by the earliest competitors.

In the video, you can see Park analyzing the cube before he begins solving it, which is likely part of the “don’t think, just solve” mentality that he has while speedcubing.

With speedcubing at this level, determining the winner sometimes literally goes down to the nanosecond, which is why these competitions have technology that helps the judges determine, to the exact moment, just how long it took for someone to complete the Cube. The timer, which was visible in the video, made some commenters question Park’s time because it actually read 2.9 seconds when the cube hit the mat. But one user pointed out that because the timer was delayed in the beginning, the extra time at the end likely makes Park’s score of 3.13 seconds valid.

If your child sees this video and wants to try solving a Cube — and maybe try to break Park’s record — check out Ruwix’s instructions for beginners. The website also sells cubes and other equipment for competing or just having fun!