[billti]

If you're a software engineer, then the Quantum Katas might fit your learning style. The exercises use Q#, which is quantum specific programming language.

https://quantum.microsoft.com/en-us/tools/quantum-katas

The first few lessons do cover complex numbers and linear algebra, so skip ahead if you want to get straight to the 'quantum' coding, but there's really no escaping the math if you really want to learn quantum.

Disclaimer: I work in the Azure Quantum team on our Quantum Development Kit (https://github.com/microsoft/qsharp) - including Q#, the Katas, and our VS Code extension. Happy to answer any other questions on it.

[auto]

Is there a reasonable pivot for someone well versed in the software engineering space to get in, or is it still the playground of relevant Ph.Ds and the like? I've been up and down the stack from firmware to the cloud, going on 14 years in the industry, have a Master's in CS, am the technical lead for a team, yada yada, but have been flirting with the idea of getting out of standard product development and back into the nitty gritty of the space I first pursued during undergrad.

[almostgotcaught]

> Is there a reasonable pivot for someone well versed in the software engineering space to get in, or is it still the playground of relevant Ph.Ds and the like?

there's no such thing as a practical QC and there won't be for decades. this isn't a couple of years away - this is "maybe, possibly, pretty please, if we get lucky" 25-50 years away. find the above comment that alludes to "2019 estimates needing ~20 million physical qubits" and consider that this thing has 105 physical qubits. then skim the posted article and find this number

> the key quantum computational resource — are now approaching 100 µs (microseconds)

that's how long those 105 physical qubits stay coherent for. now ponder your career pivot.

source: i dabbled during my PhD - took a couple of classes from Fred Chong, wrote a paper - it's all hype.