Problem
Certification prep lacked a structured, exam-aligned set of practical exercises and utilities.
Solution
Built organized notebooks and helper scripts to implement circuits, simulate/run on IBM backends, and rapidly debug against the exam objectives.
What I Did
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Completed three Qiskit/quantum tracks (Feb 2025):
Basics of Quantum Information · Practical Introduction to Quantum-Safe Cryptography · Variational Algorithm Design -
Implemented foundational circuits in Qiskit and verified behavior with statevector + shot histograms: Bell state / entanglement checks, teleportation, Deutsch–Jozsa, Grover, and a small QFT.
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Transpiled and optimized circuits for real devices: experimented with layout/routing and transpiler optimization levels; compared depth, 2-qubit counts, and estimated error.
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Simulated device noise with Aer to anticipate hardware behavior: ran circuits under realistic noise models and documented divergences vs. ideal simulation.
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Ran jobs on IBM Quantum backends (where available): tuned shots/seeds, captured results, and recorded quick notes on fidelity/accuracy vs. simulator runs.
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Designed and tuned variational workflows (VQE/QAOA-style): built parameterized ansätze, defined cost functions, compared optimizers (e.g., COBYLA/SPSA/SLSQP), and tracked convergence curves.
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Applied basic error-mitigation techniques: measurement calibration/readout correction and simple circuit-folding experiments to gauge zero-noise style extrapolation.
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Quantum-safe crypto study & demos: summarized PQC vs. QKD at a high level; drafted Python examples of hybrid key exchange & signature verification flows; noted trade-offs (key sizes, latency, compatibility).
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Reusable helpers & docs: structured notebooks, plotting utilities, and “mini-checklists” for running the same circuit across simulator vs. hardware for consistent comparisons.
Results / Artifacts
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Certificates (Feb 2025):
• Basics of Quantum Information — For certificate see certifications tab
• Practical Intro to Quantum-Safe Cryptography — For certificate see certifications tab
• Variational Algorithm Design — For certificate see certifications tab -
Repository: source notebooks/scripts with step-by-step commentary and saved plots.
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Takeaways: clearer intuition for parameterized circuits & optimizer behavior; practical sense of transpilation/ noise impacts; a starting toolkit for quantum-safe migration conversations.