Two years ago it took her 90 seconds just to finish one. Now a six-year-old from China can solve a Rubik's Cube faster than most adults can read this sentence.

  • 4.27 seconds — Lian Yunzhi's new women's world record average, set across five solves
  • 4.52 seconds — the average from her first record-breaking run, days earlier
  • 1,300+ algorithms she has reportedly memorized to solve the puzzle
  • 3.54 seconds — her fastest single solve on record

From 90 seconds to a world record

Lian Yunzhi first picked up a Rubik's Cube at age four, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, and needed a full 90 seconds to solve it. This month, at a World Cube Association-certified competition in Wuhan, she posted a new women's world record average of 4.52 seconds across five official solves.

She didn't stop there. Days later, at a separate competition in Guangzhou, she lowered her own record to 4.27 seconds, becoming the only female speedcuber ever to average under 4.5 seconds on the 3x3x3 cube, according to the Associated Press. One of her five attempts in that run took just 3.54 seconds.

What it takes to solve a cube that fast

Speedcubing at this level isn't intuition — it's memorized pattern recognition executed at speed. CCTV reported that Lian has learned more than 1,300 named algorithms, each a specific sequence of turns that solves a particular scramble pattern, and that she trains two to three hours a day. Her parents have also taken her to Shanghai to work with top-level coaches.

The routine has visibly changed her outside the cube, too. Her mother, Lin Yangxi, told the AP that competition initially held no appeal for her daughter, until early success built her confidence.

"She was an introverted kid. Now, she is very confident wherever she goes," Lin Yangxi said.

Where she ranks among the best in the world

Lian's record is specifically for the fastest women's average — she is not the fastest speedcuber overall. That distinction belongs to Teodor Zadjer of Poland, who holds the outright single-solve world record at 2.76 seconds. But averaging under 4.5 seconds across five solves, rather than hitting one lucky fast time, is widely considered the harder and more meaningful benchmark in competitive cubing, since it rewards consistency over a single fortunate scramble.

Footage from the Wuhan competition, shared by CCTV, shows Lian wearing a red headband with a large bow, her hands moving almost too fast to follow before she smiles and claps after finishing. It's a small, joyful scene built on genuinely elite mechanical skill — the kind of record that took a four-year-old two years of daily practice, more than a thousand memorized sequences, and a fair amount of stubbornness to reach.

For now, the record stands as the fastest average any woman has posted at solving one of the most recognizable puzzles on the planet — set by someone who is still years away from needing to learn long division.