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Programming Quantum Computers

Alice Flarend, Robert Hilborn

Published Jul 9, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Programming a quantum computer can be thought of as having two steps. The first has been the subject of the past several chapters: leveraging number theory, superposition, entanglement, gates, and measurements to develop an algorithm to solve a problem. Classically, computer programmers do not work at the level of gates and there is, of course, no such thing in their world as entanglement or superposition. They work at the second level, writing code to implement the algorithm. There are several universal languages available for classical programming. This chapter provides resources for programming quantum computers using these standard languages.

DOI
10.1093/oso/9780197904930.003.0016

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Abstract Programming a quantum computer can be thought of as having two steps. The first has been the subject of the past several chapters: leveraging number theory, superposition, entanglement, gates, and measurements to develop an algorithm to solve a problem. Classically, computer programmers do not work at the level of gates and there is, of course, no such thing in their world as entanglement or superposition. They work at the second level, writing code to implement the algorithm. There are several universal languages available for classical programming. This chapter provides resources for programming quantum computers using these standard languages.
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Quantum programming languages provide necessary constructs to program quantum computers. To write such programs, one needs to understand the characteristics of quantum computers such as superposition and entanglement, which are novel as compared to programming with classical computers. Understanding these characteristics requires an understanding of quantum physics. Thus, there is a need to build high-level modeling abstractions of quantum programs for software engineers who are used to program on classical computers to understand and model quantum programs at a high-level of abstraction and independent of quantum platforms. To this end, we present some ideas for developing such quantum software modeling languages, by presenting a conceptual model of quantum programs and an example of modeling the state-based behavior of quantum entanglement program. Moreover, we present some open issues in the area of modeling quantum programs.
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