Road to Practitioner (R2P)

Road to Practitioner is the campus programme that takes people who are new to quantum computing and brings them to the point where they can reproduce serious, utility-scale work in Qiskit. It follows the IBM Quantum learning path and runs in cohorts — a class of peers who go through it together, help each other, and stay in touch afterwards.

The journey

The IBM adoption path runs from novice, through learner and apprentice, to practitioner — and, for those who continue into research, on to algorithm engineering. R2P covers the learning phase: it starts at learner level and ends with participants able to reproduce work at utility scale.

How it is built

Six units, from an activation workshop and Qiskit basics through quantum algorithms, tooling and noise handling, up to a capstone project. Nine lectures, each with a theory part and a hands-on part; four coding assignments, one at the end of each unit; and a final team project.

The capstone project

Teams of three to five people take on a utility-scale coding challenge in areas such as quantum diagonalization, optimization or simulation. Submissions are graded and need a passing score to complete the programme, and the best teams present their solutions at the closing ceremony.

What you need before you start

Basics of quantum mechanics — states and measurement, superposition, entanglement, interference — together with linear algebra and complex numbers. Python at a working level: data structures, NumPy, functions, Jupyter notebooks, installing packages. An IBM Quantum account and Qiskit installed. And roughly an hour and a half of lectures a week, plus time for the assignments.

What comes after

R2P lays the foundation for the Road to Utility programme, where the work moves from reproducing results to producing them.