Prepare for QCHack!

We know that there’s a lot for you to follow in preparation for the hacking period on Saturday, so we thought we’d provide some more information on what to expect. We’ll be updating this throughout the week!

Important notes:
Challenges won’t be released until Saturday at 10AM EDT!
Every individual who submits a project will be qualified to receive a t-shirt, and will receive a certificate of completion!

General Hacking Information

• Participants will be solving challenges proposed by our sponsors. There’s something for everyone, and whether you want to work with the quantum state, get creative with high-level algorithms, or anything in between, our sponsors have provided an array of both accessible and complex challenges for you to solve.

• Some challenges are open-ended, some automated, some both.

• Project submission forms will be going out once the hacking period begins. You are limited to one submission per challenge, but you may submit to multiple challenges. Per the FAQ, teams may consist of 1-5 participants.

• You must accept the Official Hacking Rules to participate in the challenge.

What can I do now to prepare for the hacking period?

We HIGHLY RECOMMEND attending/watching as many tutorials as you can. These tutorials will be going over important information about each company’s respective challenge, including how to set up your development environment, how to use different programming frameworks, and other content that will be necessary for doing well in each challenge. Watching tutorials is the best way prepare yourself!

We also HIGHLY RECOMMEND submitting projects via GitHub. Some challenges will require you to do so. If you do not currently have a GitHub account, you can create one here. If you are unfamiliar with GitHub, I’ve written an interactive tutorial which you can find here (YuQC Github Basics). No prior knowledge is needed to start and learn from the tutorial.

What challenges might be right for me? (Based on experience)*

A list of the current challenge tracks organized by answers to the question “What is your level of understanding of quantum computing?” Challenges are in no particular order and are just suggestions. Note that challenges are not just graded on the complexity of implementations, but on other factors like creativity, usefulness, etc, and therefore understanding of QC does not directly correlate with your chances to win a given challenge.

1-2

qBraid’s Challenge

Microsoft’s challenge (Free-form)

IBM Challenge (Creative)

QCHack x YQI non-technical challenge

3-5

Microsoft’s challenge (Both parts)

Q-CTRL’s challenge

IBM Challenge (Technical)

Google’s challenge

What challenges might be right for me?* (Based on interest)

If you are interested in the Applications of quantum computing, we recommend considering:

• Microsoft’s challenge (read a blog post about it!)

• QCHack x YQI Non-technical Challenge

If you are interested in the Theory of quantum computing, we recommend considering:

• IBM’s challenge(s)

• Microsoft’s challenge

• Google’s Challenge

If you are interested in Building quantum systems, we recommend considering:

• IBM’s challenge(s)

• Q-CTRL’s challenge

If you are interested in Non-technical quantum computing research, we recommend considering:

• QCHack x YQI Non-technical challenge

• Attending all talks and panels

All challenge or material recommendations were made via the discretion of the QCHack team and are not subject of sponsored promotion.