Cube Net

A cube net is a flat arrangement of six edge-connected squares. It works only when every square can turn through a right angle and arrive at a different face of the finished cube.

How to play Cube Net

Every question presents four possible nets on Easy and Standard, or five on Hard. Exactly one folds into a cube. Select it before the question timer expires; the valid answer is then highlighted before the next set appears.

The flat arrangement may be rotated or reflected on the page without changing the answer. What matters is the connection pattern: which square hinges from which, and where that chain of folds lands in three dimensions.

A reliable cube-folding method

1. Choose a central anchor. Treat a well-connected square as the front face and keep it fixed while the others move.
2. Fold its immediate neighbours first. Squares above, below, left and right of the anchor become different side faces, so you can assign them directions before following longer branches.
3. Look for the opposite face. A square two hinge-turns away often closes behind the anchor. Ask whether more than one branch is trying to become that back face.
4. Reject collisions. If two squares arrive at the same face direction, stop. Rotating the whole net will not repair that overlap.
5. Check every joined edge. A compact loop can force incompatible fold directions even when the broad outline looks plausible.

You do not need to picture a smooth paper animation. Labelling faces mentally as front, top, right and back turns the task into a short sequence of right-angle direction changes.

What the difficulty levels change

Easy uses five questions and three deliberately compact, looped distractors beside the valid net. Those alternatives tend to expose their conflicting joined edges early. Standard uses six questions and only tree-shaped distractors: they have the same five visible hinges as a genuine cube net but make two faces overlap after folding.

Hard also uses six questions, adds a fifth option and draws every wrong answer from the one-square near misses. Each differs from some valid cube net by moving only one square, so outline familiarity alone is less reliable.

How the Cube Net score works

Correct answers provide 88% of the base score and answer pace supplies 12%. Speed is gated by accuracy and is suppressed at the random-choice baseline—25% for four options or 20% for five—so quick guessing does not earn useful pace credit.

The result also reports how many chosen distractors failed because faces overlapped. That is diagnostic feedback, not a second penalty. Difficulty records stay separate and receive the same small adjustment used elsewhere on Puzzle Workout.

How every net is validated

The generator builds every free hexomino: every distinct connected arrangement of six squares after rotations and reflections are treated as the same shape. There are 35. A folding simulation assigns the first square a three-dimensional orientation, then turns each neighbouring square 90 degrees around its shared edge.

A candidate is valid only if all paths give consistent orientations and the six outward normals are all different. This exact test identifies the known 11 cube nets and rejects the remaining 24 shapes. Each question uses different shape classes, shuffles their display orientations and verifies that one—and only one—option passes.

Common Cube Net mistakes

Recognising only a familiar silhouette

Some valid nets are memorable, but Hard distractors deliberately move one square from a valid pattern. Follow the hinges instead of choosing by overall resemblance.

Folding branches independently

Two branches may each seem able to become the back face. They cannot both occupy it. Keep already assigned face directions in place as you trace the next branch.

Assuming a compact shape must close

Extra edge contacts in the flat drawing create loops. Those loops can demand two incompatible orientations for the same square even before all six faces are placed.

Cube Net questions