Simple equations that can be solved in two steps are called two-step equations. We apply inverse operations to isolate the variable that we are trying to isolate. So if the quantity that we want to get rid of is adding the other quantity, we will need to perform subtraction, and vice versa. The same thing goes for multiplication and division as they are inverses of each other.
Example 1:
$$\eqalign{
2x - 5 &= 11 \cr
2x - 5 + 5 &= 11 + 5 \cr
2x &= 16 \cr
x &= 8 \cr} $$
Example 2:
$$\eqalign{
{y \over 3} + 5 &= 7 \cr
{y \over 3} + 5 - 5 &= 7 - 5 \cr
{y \over 3} &= 2 \cr
y &= 6 \cr} $$