Foundations of Quantum Computing with IBM Qiskit

What it covers

• Qubits, superposition and the Born rule — a quantum state as a normalized vector, and global vs. relative phase
• The Qiskit SDK: building a quantum circuit and running it two ways — exact statevector and sampled shots
• Single-qubit gates as unitary matrices, and placing an arbitrary state on the Bloch sphere with rotation gates
• Multi-qubit circuits, controlled gates and entanglement — Bell and GHZ states, and why entanglement is the source of the advantage
• Measurement in the computational basis: shots, sampling error, and estimating expectation values from counts
• Running on real IBM Quantum hardware — transpiling to a device's basis gates and coupling map, recognizing noise, and the error-mitigation levers
• Foundational quantum algorithms: oracles and phase kickback, Deutsch–Jozsa, Bernstein–Vazirani, and Grover search
• Encoding an optimization problem as a QUBO — cost functions over binary variables, hard constraints as penalties — and mapping it to an Ising Hamiltonian
• Quantum optimization with QAOA: the cost and mixer ansatz, the hybrid quantum–classical loop, and how circuit depth trades against solution quality
• Classical optimization with OR-Tools CP-SAT as an honest baseline — and judging when classical is simply the right tool
• Hybrid decision intelligence: routing sub-problems between classical and quantum solvers, classical warm-starts, and merging sub-solutions into one plan
• Delivering a working decision-intelligence engine end to end — ingesting data, optimizing with a hybrid solver, and emitting an explained mission plan

How it is earned

Earners must complete the required course, participate in hands-on circuit development activities, build and execute quantum circuits using IBM Qiskit, and successfully complete the course assessment or final practical project.

Skills it attests

• Quantum circuit development and execution · IBM Qiskit SDK
• Hybrid quantum–classical optimization (QAOA) · Qiskit Optimization
• Combinatorial optimization and constraint programming · Google OR-Tools CP-SAT