Learning path

Quantum software engineer

“I want to write quantum programs and run them on real hardware.”

Programmers and CS students. Comfortable with code; linear algebra helps but the path builds what it needs.

5 milestones · 24 steps · 65 minutes of reading, plus hands-on time

By the end, you will be able to

Build, debug and optimise multi-qubit circuits
Implement Grover's search and the quantum Fourier transform from gates
Read and write OpenQASM, and move circuits between tools
Route a circuit onto a real device topology and reason about its noise
Submit a job to a physical quantum computer and interpret the result

1
Milestone 1: Your first circuits
5 steps
You can put a qubit in any basis state or superposition on purpose.
- LessonBeginner8 min
  What Is a Qubit?
  The data type. Everything else is operations on it.
  Auto-tracks
- LessonIntermediate12 min
  Gates & Circuits
  The instruction set: gates, wires, and reading a circuit diagram.
  Auto-tracks
- ChallengeBeginner
  Flip it
  Your first working program. Keep it — the rest build on it.
  Auto-tracks
- ChallengeBeginner
  Fair coin
  Superposition on demand: the quantum hello-world.
  Auto-tracks
- Do it
  Free play in the circuit simulator
  Break things on purpose, watch the statevector, then export your circuit as OpenQASM 3.
2
Milestone 2: Entanglement as a tool
5 steps
You use entanglement deliberately, and debug circuits that misuse it.
- LessonIntermediate12 min
  Entanglement
  The resource every useful algorithm spends.
  Auto-tracks
- ChallengeBeginner
  Make a Bell pair
  The two-gate circuit you will write more than any other.
  Auto-tracks
- ChallengeIntermediate
  Broken CNOT
  Debugging: the skill that separates writing circuits from copying them.
  Auto-tracks
- ChallengeIntermediate
  GHZ for three
  Scale an idea from two qubits to three without starting over.
  Auto-tracks
- ChallengeAdvanced
  Finish the teleporter
  A full protocol, with mid-circuit logic, finished by you.
  Auto-tracks
3
Milestone 3: Real algorithms
7 steps
You have built the two workhorse subroutines of quantum computing by hand.
- ChallengeIntermediate
  Kick the phase back
  The trick behind nearly every quantum speedup, isolated.
  Auto-tracks
- VisualizationIntermediate
  Deutsch–Jozsa: The First Quantum Speedup
  The first provable speedup — small enough to hold in your head.
- LessonAdvanced15 min
  Grover's Search
  Amplitude amplification: search as a rotation.
  Auto-tracks
- ChallengeAdvanced
  One full turn of Grover
  Build one full Grover turn and count what it costs.
  Auto-tracks
- VisualizationAdvanced
  Quantum Fourier Transform
  The Fourier transform, the engine inside Shor and phase estimation.
- ChallengeAdvanced
  The two-qubit QFT, missing its last step
  Finish a QFT yourself, including the step people forget.
  Auto-tracks
- LessonAdvanced18 min
  Shor's Algorithm
  Put the pieces together into the algorithm that made the field famous.
  Auto-tracks
4
Milestone 4: Engineering for real devices
5 steps
You write circuits that survive contact with actual hardware.
- ChallengeIntermediate
  Route around the coupling map
  Real chips cannot connect every qubit to every other. Work around it.
  Auto-tracks
- Workbench
  Routing Race
  Watch a router spend SWAPs — and see why two-qubit gate count is the metric.
- Workbench
  Noise Sandbox and Mitigation
  Noise, and the mitigation techniques that claw accuracy back.
- ChallengeAdvanced
  Gate golf: entangle the top two
  Fewer gates means less noise. Optimise against par.
  Auto-tracks
- Do it
  Run a job on a real quantum computer
  The finish line: your circuit, on a physical chip, with the result stored.
5
Milestone 5: Prove it
2 steps
You have a verifiable credential and a public track record.
- Do it
  Enter the weekly gate-golf competition
  Measure yourself against everyone else, fresh every Monday.
- Do it
  Earn a certification
  A timed exam and a certificate anyone can verify by its link.

Progress is stored in this browser only. Lessons tick themselves when you finish them and challenges when you solve them; everything else you tick yourself, because opening a page is not the same as understanding it.

After this path

Install the qubit16 Python package and run your existing Qiskit code through the hardware layer.
Contribute to an open-source SDK — Qiskit, Cirq and PennyLane all label good first issues.
Sit the Advanced certification and put the certificate link on your CV.

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By the end, you will be able to

Milestone 1: Your first circuits

Milestone 2: Entanglement as a tool

Milestone 3: Real algorithms

Milestone 4: Engineering for real devices

Milestone 5: Prove it

After this path