Introduction

Everything below is available to every participant. If you get stuck at any point in the weekend, ask. Mentors and sponsor representatives are on site the entire event, and the Discord has channels for each challenge plus a general help channel. Organizers are reachable at cqc@clemson.edu.

Before you arrive, work through the SC Quantathon v3 Bootcamp. It is self-paced and released one day at a time from September 14 to 25. Each day has notes and a notebook, and Day 3 is a recorded qBraid demo. It covers quantum computing basics and the tools the challenges use. Set up the accounts below before Friday so you are not doing it during the hacking window.

Tools and Technologies

qBraid. SC Quantathon v3 is powered by qBraid, which is how you get to quantum hardware and simulators during the event. qBraid Lab is a browser-based JupyterLab with quantum SDKs preinstalled, so there is nothing to configure locally.

  • Create an account at account.qbraid.com before the event with the email you registered with for SCQv3. We will add you to the Organization page to receive credits
  • Launch the environment at lab.qbraid.com
  • Documentation: docs.qbraid.com

IBM Quantum. IBM Quantum Platform gives you free access to real IBM quantum computers through the Open Plan, along with Qiskit and IBM’s learning material. Everyone uses their own Open Plan account, so set yours up in advance.

  • Sign up at quantum.cloud.ibm.com and save your API key before the event
  • The free Open Plan includes up to 10 minutes of QPU runtime per 28-day rolling window, so plan your hardware runs and debug against simulators first
  • Documentation and guides: quantum.cloud.ibm.com/docs

IonQ. IonQ’s trapped-ion systems and simulators are reachable through qBraid. Details come with the challenge brief at the opening ceremony. Teams assigned this challenge set up what they need on Saturday.

Quantum Rings. The Quantum Rings SDK and simulator are used for the Quantum Rings challenge. Setup instructions come with the challenge brief on Saturday.

Qiskit and Python. Most challenge material assumes Python. Qiskit is the main SDK covered in the bootcamp and is preinstalled in qBraid Lab environments.

Devpost. Your submission is made here on Devpost as one ZIP upload. Create your submission early on Sunday and keep editing it until the 10:00 AM deadline.