To get the most out of this book

You should be comfortable with basic algebra and should have written some computer code. Advanced knowledge in either of these fields is not necessary. No prior understanding of quantum physics is needed. You should be able to think logically about scientific concepts.

This book’s code examples use a very small part of the Python programming language. If you have rudimentary skills with Java, C/C++, Visual Basic, or any related language, you can understand the book’s examples. If you run into a Python feature you don’t already know about, you can learn about it by searching the web.

Software/hardware covered in the book	System requirements
Python	A modern web browser running on any operating system.
IBM Qiskit
Quantum computers on the IBM cloud

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code from the book’s GitHub repository (a link is available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

You can run each of this book’s examples on a web page in the IBM Quantum Lab. As long as you have a web browser, no other software is required.

But you don’t have to rely on IBM’s website. If you’re willing to follow some setup instructions, you can download Qiskit and run each example on your own computer. Your own laptop can simulate the behavior of a very small quantum computer. In this book, we emphasize the use of IBM’s website for running code, but the local execution alternative is always available.