Microsoft launches Quantum Katas, a programming project to learn Q#, its Quantum programming language

Microsoft has announced Quantum Katas, a new portal for learning the quantum programming language Q#. This project contains a self-paced set of programming tutorials to teach interested developers the basic elements of Quantum computers as well as their Quantum programming language.

Microsoft has been one of the forerunners in the Quantum computing race. Last year, Microsoft announced Q#, as a domain-specific programming language used for expressing quantum algorithms.

Quantum Katas, as the name implies, has been derived from the popular programming technique Code Katas, which means an exercise to develop your skills through practice and repetition.

Per Microsoft, each kata offers a sequence of tasks on a certain quantum computing topic, progressing from simple to challenging. Each task is based on code-filling; they may vary from one line at the start to sizable code fragments as the tutorial progresses. Developers are also provided reference materials to solve the tasks, both on quantum computing and on Q#. A testing framework is provided to validate solutions, thereby providing real-time feedback.

Each kata covers one topic. The current topics are:

• Basic quantum computing gates. These tasks focus on the main single-qubit and multi-qubit gates used in quantum computing.
• Superposition. In these tasks, you learn how to prepare a certain superposition state on one or multiple qubits.
• Measurements. These tasks teach you to distinguish quantum states using measurements.
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• Deutsch–Jozsa algorithm. In these tasks, you learn how to write quantum oracles which implement classical functions, and the Bernstein–Vazirani, and Deutsch–Jozsa algorithms.

To use these katas, you need to install the Quantum Development Kit for Windows 10, MacOS or Linux.  The kit includes all of the pieces a developer needs to get started including the Q# programming language and compiler, a Q# library, a local quantum computing simulator, a quantum trace simulator and a Visual Studio extension.

Microsoft Quantum Katas was developed after the results of the Q# coding contest that took place earlier this month, challenging more than 650 developers to solve Quantum related questions.

You can read more about Quantum Katas on GitHub.

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