People often ask me “Where should I get started in order to learn about quantum computing?”. Here are several steps you can take. I work for IBM, so things I link to will often be to the IBM Quantum program. Also, I acknowledge that several of the links and videos toward the beginning involve me, but we’ll get through those quickly.
Watch some introductory videos
If you only watch one video, watch this one from WIRED with Talia Gershon:
This one with me is from early 2019 and discussed the IBM Q System One:
Finally, this video from CNBC with Professor Scott Aaronson of the University of Texas Austin, Martin Reynolds of Gartner, and me brings things up to date in January, 2020. Note that I personally do not support many of the statements about “Quantum Supremacy” (horrible label, supercomputers do have massive amounts of storage, off-by-15-million-percent math error):
Get a book
If you are really just getting started and want to systematically work through the required math at an easy and conversational pace, my book Dancing with Qubits should prepare you for more advanced material and give you a start to reading research papers. (Shameless self-plug.)
If you are a hard core physics and/or computer science person, you want to have Quantum Computation and Quantum Information: 10th Anniversary Edition 10th Anniversary ed. Edition by Michael A. Nielsen and Issac L. Chuang in your library. It’s a little old by now, but if you want to end up doing quantum computing research, you will likely have to become very familiar and comfortable with the contents. Other books to consider are Quantum Computing: A Gentle Introduction (good on algorithms, “gentle” is subjective!) and Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists (a bit dated and make sure you get a copy of the errata).
Play a game
Hello Quantum is available for Apple iOS and Android and will teach you the basics of how quantum gates and circuits work.
Build and run circuits with a real quantum computer
Quantum simulators have their place for basic education, experimentation, and debugging. Note, though, that a quantum simulator is to real quantum computer hardware as a TV console flight simulator is to a real plane. If you want a job as a pilot, I would prefer you knew how to fly an actual airplane.
The easiest way to get started without writing code is with the IBM Quantum Composer within the IBM Quantum Experience.
The IBM Quantum Experience has over 200,000 registered users, so you’ll be joining a very large community of beginner, intermediate, and advanced users.
Learn Python
If you are going to write quantum computing code, learn Python. As I write this, the latest version is 3.8. You want Python 3, not Python 2.
Learn Jupyter Notebooks
This is the modern way of developing full documents with interactive code, executions, graphics, videos, and visualizations. It’s used within the IBM Quantum Experience but also many other computational and AI applications. You are mainly interested in how to use it through a browser, not how to run and maintain the console.
Website (introductory): Introduction to Jupyter Notebooks
Write quantum computing code in Qiskit
Qiskit is the leading open source platform for developing quantum computing code and applications. It’s available on Github and available under the Apache 2,0 license. It’s had over 300,000 downloads but I’m recommending you use it through your browser on the IBM Cloud. As with the Composer, it is available through the IBM Quantum Experience.
Whether you want to download Qiskit or use it online, the easiest way to get get started is to watch the series of videos by Abe Asfaw.
From there, you can watch the other videos and also learn about the Qiskit Community.
At this point you are ready to work your way through the online open source Learn Quantum Computing through Qiskit.
