Quantum computing has the potential to change everything we know about computing. It’s based on non-traditional computer logic and is not limited merely to bits-and-bytes, on-or-off, true-or-false scenarios.

Yes, quantum computing has bits, just like any computer. But instead of ones and zeros, quantum bits, or qubits, can represent a one, a zero, or both at once. This superposition is so different from what occurs in traditional systems that it can allow two of these qubits to behave in ways that can’t be explained by the individual components. This behavior is called entanglement. It’s these more complex calculations that will be used to re-imagine computing.

IBM Q offers students, researchers, and general science enthusiasts hands-on access through a human user interface to IBM’s experimental cloud-enabled quantum computing platform. The interface allows users to run algorithms and experiments, work with quantum bits (qubits), and explore tutorials and simulations around what might be possible with quantum computing.

How can I participate?

The Qiskit project is an open source framework for working with noisy quantum computers at the level of pulses, circuits, and algorithms. This project enables developers and researchers to conduct quantum explorations using Python scripts. Additionally, they can batch requests together for quantum computer interactions.

Get started with Qiskit

We have a few ways for developers to get some experience with quantum development. You can:

Dive into quantum programming with Qiskit, our open source, full stack quantum software framework

Get up and running quickly, run experiments, and work with quantum circuits on the IBM Q Experience – the most widely used and accessible quantum cloud platform.

Resources to get you started

If you’re not quite ready to jump into developing on quantum, here are some resources we recommend to get you started.

Learn the basics

If you’re still a little unsure about what exactly quantum computing is, get a quick overview of the technology, learn about possible use cases, breeze through the fundamentals, and even take a look inside a quantum computer.

Go a little deeper

Ready to give Qiskit a try? The Coding with Qiskit video series offers an engaging introduction to how to program quantum computers using Qiskit. Each video covers specific topics you need to understand to become a successful quantum programmer.

If you prefer to follow along to tutorials, the Qiskit tutorials offer step-by-step instructions for getting started with Qiskit.

Go even deeper with quantum

If understanding quantum computing at a complex level is important to you and your career, check out our open source textbook, “Learn Quantum Computing using Qiskit.”