Getting Started with Azure Quantum

Recommendations for resources that help you getting started with Azure Quantum.

In this blog, I’d like to give you recommendations for resources that help you getting started with Azure Quantum. They require that you have a certain understanding of quantum computing concepts.

The 10.000 miles high Azure Quantum Overview

There are a few inspirational videos that put Azure Quantum into context. Admittedly with a slight marketing-flavor, they nevertheless give you an understanding, what Azure Quantum is, what motivates Microsoft to invest in it and how it positions Azure Quantum in the market.

  • Azure Quantum overview [0:01:32] - See, what makes Azure Quantum a unique cloud service enabling the most innovative quantum computing and optimization solutions.
  • Experience quantum impact with Azure Quantum [0:02:39] - In this video, get an introduction to Azure Quantum, a full-stack, open cloud ecosystem that will bring the benefits of quantum computing to people and organizations around the world.

Plan your Development Environment

The Quantum Development Kit allows you to develop quantum applications from or on your local computer. The set up a local development environment for Azure Quantum page of the official documentation contains most information necessary. Before getting started, you should answer to yourself following three fundamental questions.

Question 1: Do you plan to create a quantum computing solution or an optimization solution?

Azure Quantum offers you two main paths of quantum solutions.

  • Option 1: Quantum Computing
    Here, you’ll use actual quantum computers. In today’s NISQ-era only limited in numbers of qubits, but great for preparing yourself for a future of scaled quantum machines. Algorithms for gate-based quantum hardware are expressed in Q#, Qiskit or Cirq.
  • Option 2: Quantum Inspired Optimization (QIO)
    QIO efficiently simulates quantum effects (like tunneling or annealing) on classical hardware. This way, you can already solve optimization problems with quantum approaches where quantum hardware available today is not scalable enough. Algorithms are expressed as cost functions in Python.

Question 2: If you plan to create a quantum computing solution: which programming language do you intend to use?

Depending on your prior experience with other .NET languages or other quantum toolkits, you can choose between three languages for your quantum computing development.

  • Option 1: Q# Q# is a open-source programming language developed by Microsoft explicitly for developing and running quantum algorithms. It is part of the Quantum Development Kit (QDK), which includes quantum libraries that let you create complex quantum operations, and quantum simulators to accurately run and test your programs before submitting them to quantum hardware. The Q# user guide provides more information about that programming language.
  • Option 2: Qiskit
    Especially, if you’ve worked with IBM’s Qiskit before, you might want to use it with Azure Quantum as well. So, go ahead and submit your quantum circuits written in Qiskit to any target machine.
  • Option 3: Cirq
    Same is true for Google’s Cirq: Azure Quantum targets are happy to execute circuits written in Cirq without any change.

Question 3: Where do you want to develop your quantum program?

Prepare your Development Environment

So, you’ve chosen the path (question 1), the programming language (question 2) and the development environment (question 3), what’s next?

  • Get an Azure Account
    For logging into Azure you need an Azure Account with an active Azure Subscription. This is your way of authenticating with the Azure Platform and deciding on how to pay for Azure services with associated costs. If you don’t have an account yet, a free account that comes with US$200 Azure credits will do. You’ll get an additional US$500 in credits with each Azure Quantum hardware partner. This means, you can get a lot of quantum development experience without any payment at all.
  • Install the Azure Command Line Interface (CLI)
    The Azure CLI allows you to provision and manage Azure Services from the command line (on any operating system). There is an Azure Quantum command set that allows you to manage Azure Quantum Workspaces and submit jobs to Azure Quantum providers.
  • Install the Quantum Development Kit (QDK)
    The open-source Quantum Development Kit offers a set of tools that will assist you in the quantum software development process for both quantum algorithms and optimization solutions. Here are installation links for different IDEs:
  • Create a Quantum Workspace
    An Azure Quantum workspace is the management component that exposes functionality for running and monitoring quantum or optimization applications. Independent from quantum path (quantum or optimization), programming language or development environment, you always interact with a workspace for running your applications. For authenticating to a workspace, you need following information of that workspace:
    • Subscription ID this workspace resides in
    • Resource Group this workspace is provisioned into
    • Name of the workspace
    • Location in which the workspace is located

Learn the Basics

Now that your environment is set up, it’s time to learn about how to develop quantum and optimization solutions. Following resources are key:

  • Azure Quantum Documentation
    This is the central location for all information about the Azure Quantum service.
  • Azure Quantum on MS Learn
    The 8-part-learning-path ‘QUantum Computing Foundations’ gives you a good overview (and hands-on exercises) of how to use Azure Quantum.
  • Azure Quantum Katas
    An awesome collection of self-paced tutorials and programming exercises to help you learn quantum computing and Q# programming.

Write your first Quantum or Optimization Solution

Here are a couple of “hello world”-level samples to give you a first impression of what it feels like to develop a quantum program for Azure Quantum:

Further resources:

With that, you should be well prepared for your quantum journey on Azure Quantum. I wish you a great start with this exciting quantum service.