100 Hours Study Plan

Version 1.0 - Updated 23 March 2022

Free exam voucher - https://airtable.com/shrEZlRker8zUukUf
Be prepared to wait a few weeks to receive it.

There are 4 phases to this study plan. Spend about 25 hours on each phase.

Phase 1: Arousing interest

Phase 2: Meat of material

Phase 3: Practice

Phase 4: Testing

Further Details

My Background:

A recent computer science graduate who has minimal skills in linear algebra/physics and beginner skills in coding. This study plan is for those who don’t have a heavy technical background, yet find quantum computing intriguing (and intimidating!). Passing the exam gave me a basic foundation of quantum computing on which I can build on. This plan is written for a style of learning that relies more on memorization by doing than a deep, intuitive understanding of the sciences. Although the former could lead to the latter.

Things To Skip
  • Linear Algebra
  • Udemy Courses
  • Software Install

It took me 120 hours, spread over a few months, to pass the exam. But I went down a couple of rabbit holes that you can skip. Like Linear Algebra. You might lose a couple of points but save yourself a ton of time (and overwhelm). The Udemy courses don’t add much to what you can find for free online. And the software install took an afternoon of troubleshooting versions but IBM’s Quantum Lab is ready immediately. When deprecated errors come up, you can worry less that it’s your computer and recognize that it’s a version change. The exam is for v0.2X and the current version is v0.34.2 (Feb 2022). There wasn't a noticeable difference when taking the exam.

Phase 1:

By play, I mean plugging code into the IBM lab to start familiarizing yourself with the syntax. James Weaver created a very useful visual application called Grok Bloch Sphere to help with understanding qubit manipulation. You’ll probably end up playing with this quite a bit to understand what gates do. Work through the sample test and Manny Gomez videos to start getting familiar with the wording of exam questions.

Phase 2:

As software people, we’re all professional Googlers by now. Again, play with the code as you find it. I prefer this method over passively reading the textbook or tutorial. 1-minute Qiskit gives a little more context and depth to the code that you won’t find in the textbook. It’s also relevant to the exam questions.

Phase 3:

Bartu and Korey do a fantastic job of giving you an overview of the material you need to know.

Phase 4:

For US$30 you can take the practice exam and get an idea of areas you need to work on. I highly recommend it. I missed passing by one percentage and missed a lot of visualization questions that I was overconfident with.

If you pass or could use some help, come check us out at the weekly online meetup.