Get started with quantum development

First published on MSDN on Dec 14, 2017

Want to explore quantum development?

Begin today with the Microsoft Quantum Development Kit. Download now

Your quantum journey begins here watch the following overview of the Quantum SDK

Build with a quantum-focused language

Get to know Q#, the brand-new quantum-focused programming language. Fully integrated with Visual Studio, enterprise-grade development tools give you the fastest path to quantum programming.

Optimize your code with local and Azure simulators

The local simulator lets you work within Visual Studio to run, test, and debug your quantum solutions. Step through your code, set breakpoints, debug line-by-line, and find real-world costs to run your solution. For larger-scale quantum solutions, leverage the Azure based simulator to simulate more than 40 qubits.

Learn from the experts

Let the industry's brightest minds take you from being a beginner to building your first quantum solution. Written by experts, a collection of ready-to-use building blocks, code samples, and existing libraries help you learn quantum development.

Resources Helpful resources, at your fingertips

In-depth documentation guides you through the key concepts of quantum development. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/quantum

• Microsoft Quantum Development kit release notes
• Quantum computing concepts includes topics such as the relevance of linear algebra to quantum computing, the nature and use of a qubit, how to read a quantum circuit, and more.
  
• Installation and validation describes how to quickly set up your quantum development environment. Your Visual Studio environment will be enhanced with a compiler for the Q# language and templates for Q# projects and files.
  
• Quickstart - your first quantum program walks you through how to create the Teleport application in the Visual Studio development environment. You'll learn how to define a Q# operation, call the Q# operation using C#, and how to execute your quantum algorithm.
  
• Managing quantum machines and drivers describes how quantum algorithms are executed, what quantum machines are available, and how to write a non-Q# driver for the quantum program.
  
• Quantum development techniques specifies the core concepts used to create quantum programs in Q#. Topics include file structures, operations and functions, working with qubits, and some advanced topics.
  
• Q# standard libraries describes the operations and functions that support both the classical language control requirement and the Q# quantum algorithms. Topics include control flow, data structures, error correction, testing, and debugging.
  
• Q# language reference details the Q# language including the type model, expressions, statements, and compiler use.
  
• For more information contains specially selected references to deep coverage of quantum computing topics.
  
• Quantum trace simulator reference contains reference material about trace simulator entities and exceptions.
  
• Q# library reference contains reference information about library entities by namespace.