Getting Started with Qiskit: Your First Quantum Program

Qiskit is an open-source Python framework developed by IBM for writing quantum programs, simulating them, and running them on real quantum hardware.

This tutorial shows you how to:

Install Qiskit

Build and run your first quantum circuit

Visualize results

(Optional) Run on a real IBM Quantum device

Let’s begin!

🔶 1. Install Qiskit

Make sure Python ≥ 3.8 is installed.

Open a terminal and run:

pip install qiskit

To upgrade:

pip install --upgrade qiskit

🔶 2. Import Qiskit

In a Python script or Jupyter notebook:

from qiskit import QuantumCircuit, transpile

from qiskit.visualization import plot_histogram

from qiskit_aer import AerSimulator

🔶 3. Create Your First Quantum Circuit

We will create:

1 qubit

1 classical bit

Apply a Hadamard (H) gate → creates superposition

Measure the result

qc = QuantumCircuit(1, 1)

qc.h(0)          # Put qubit 0 into superposition

qc.measure(0, 0) # Measure into classical bit 0

qc.draw('mpl')

This circuit prepares a qubit in the state:

∣

𝜓

⟩

=

∣

0

⟩

+

∣

1

⟩

2

∣ψ⟩=

2

​

∣0⟩+∣1⟩

​

🔶 4. Run the Circuit on a Simulator

We run the circuit on Qiskit's built-in simulator.

sim = AerSimulator()

compiled_circuit = transpile(qc, sim)

result = sim.run(compiled_circuit, shots=1024).result()

counts = result.get_counts()

print(counts)

Expected output:

{'0': 500, '1': 524}   # values vary

Results should be roughly 50% |0⟩ and 50% |1⟩ because the Hadamard gate creates equal superposition.

🔶 5. Visualize Results

plot_histogram(counts)

You'll see a bar graph with two bars of nearly equal height.

🔶 6. Try a More Interesting Circuit

Let’s create entanglement using two qubits:

qc2 = QuantumCircuit(2, 2)

qc2.h(0)       # superposition

qc2.cx(0, 1)   # CNOT: entangle qubits

qc2.measure([0, 1], [0, 1])

qc2.draw('mpl')

Running this on the simulator produces outputs like:

{'00': 520, '11': 504}

Notice only 00 and 11 appear.

This means the qubits are entangled.

🔶 7. (Optional) Run on Real IBM Quantum Hardware

Step 1: Install IBM Quantum provider

pip install qiskit-ibm-runtime

Step 2: Save your IBM Quantum API token

Get a token from https://quantum.ibm.com

 → Account → API token.

Run:

from qiskit_ibm_runtime import QiskitRuntimeService

QiskitRuntimeService.save_account(token="YOUR_API_TOKEN")

Step 3: Use a real device

from qiskit_ibm_runtime import QiskitRuntimeService

service = QiskitRuntimeService()

backend = service.least_busy(simulator=False)

result = backend.run(qc, shots=1024).result()

print(result.get_counts())

Because real quantum hardware is noisy, you may not get perfect 50/50 results. This is normal.

🔶 8. Summary Checklist

✔ Installed Qiskit

✔ Created your first quantum circuit

✔ Applied a Hadamard gate

✔ Measured superposition

✔ Simulated results

✔ Visualized output

✔ (Optional) Ran on a real quantum processor

You now understand the basic workflow of quantum programming in Qiskit!

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December 08, 2025

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