The reference for the most widely used quantum SDK. The transpiler and primitives sections are where you will spend real time once you move past toy circuits.
Advanced · 4 resources
Compilation & transpilation
Turning an abstract circuit into one a specific device can execute: decomposing into native gates, mapping logical to physical qubits, and inserting SWAPs to satisfy connectivity — while minimising depth.
Why it matters
On today’s hardware, compilation quality can change your result from signal to noise. It is also one of the most employable quantum software skills.
After this you will be able to
- Explain qubit routing and SWAP insertion
- Compare transpiler optimisation levels and passes
- Write a custom compiler pass
Start here
2 best places to start
Hand-picked and ordered. If you only have time for one, take the first.
TKET
Quantinuum
A retargetable quantum compiler with genuinely strong optimisation and routing passes, usable from Python via pytket. The best place to study production-grade circuit compilation.
Also covering this
2 more resources
Awesome Quantum Software
Quantum Open Source Foundation
A maintained index of essentially every open-source quantum project — SDKs, simulators, compilers, chemistry packages. Where to look when you need a tool this guide does not list.
Cirq
Google Quantum AI
Google's SDK, built around explicit control of qubit layout, timing and noise. Preferred when you care about what the hardware actually does rather than an idealised abstraction.