Quantum Programming with Q#

Q# is Microsoft’s purpose-built language for quantum programming, and this course is taught by the team that designed it. Rather than abstracting away the language-level details, the course goes deep into why Q# is structured the way it is: the type system that prevents common quantum programming errors, the operation and function distinction that reflects the no-cloning theorem, and the measurement semantics that differ fundamentally from classical assignment.

The course is a natural fit for developers coming from a classical software background who want to engage with quantum programming at the language level rather than through a circuit-drawing API.

What you’ll learn

The first two weeks cover Q# language fundamentals: qubits as a managed resource, quantum operations and their adjoints, quantum functions, and the type system. Students implement basic quantum protocols (teleportation, superdense coding) and develop fluency with the Q# standard library. Weeks three and four introduce quantum algorithms in Q#: phase kickback, quantum Fourier transform, phase estimation, and Grover’s search, with careful attention to how classical control flow interacts with quantum operations.

Week five covers quantum chemistry simulation as a domain application, using Q# and the Microsoft Quantum Development Kit’s chemistry library to set up and analyze molecular Hamiltonians. Weeks six and seven address Azure Quantum: submitting Q# jobs to real hardware backends, interpreting results, and using the resource estimator to evaluate circuit requirements before committing to hardware runs. The final week focuses on resource estimation in depth, teaching students to use Microsoft’s resource estimation tool to project qubit counts and gate depths for fault-tolerant implementations of algorithms of interest.

Course structure

Eight weeks of instructor-led content with weekly assignments graded by the Microsoft Quantum team. The course uses the Azure Quantum Development Kit throughout, which students access via a free Azure account provisioned as part of enrollment. Discussion forums are active and moderated by Microsoft engineers. The verified certificate is issued by edX and co-branded with Microsoft.

Who is this for?

• Software developers who prefer a strongly typed, language-oriented approach to quantum programming
• Engineers interested in Microsoft’s quantum ecosystem and Azure Quantum platform
• Researchers in chemistry or materials science who want to use Q# for Hamiltonian simulation
• Students who have learned circuit-based quantum computing and want to understand higher-level quantum programming abstractions

Prerequisites

Experience with at least one statically typed programming language (C#, Java, Rust, or similar) is recommended. Familiarity with quantum circuits and basic quantum algorithms (superposition, entanglement, measurement) is required. Linear algebra at the introductory level is assumed.