Lecture, practice and mock-exam notebooks for the IBM exam C1000-179: Fundamentals of Quantum Computing Using Qiskit v2.X Developer (credential: IBM Certified Quantum Computation using Qiskit v2.X Developer – Associate).
The notebooks were written for the Qiskit Advocate KR certification study group. They combine the group's study notebooks and the QAMP 2025 certification tutorial into one English set that follows the official objectives and section weights.
68 questions · 90 minutes · pass mark 47 correct (69%) · single-answer and multi-select questions · Pearson VUE (test center or online).
| # | Section | Weight | ≈ Questions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Perform quantum operations | 16% | 11 |
| 2 | Visualize quantum circuits, measurements, and states | 11% | 7 |
| 3 | Create quantum circuits | 18% | 12 |
| 4 | Run quantum circuits | 15% | 10 |
| 5 | Use the sampler primitive | 12% | 8 |
| 6 | Use the estimator primitive | 12% | 8 |
| 7 | Retrieve and analyze the results of quantum circuits | 10% | 7 |
| 8 | Operate with OpenQASM | 6% | 5 |
The question counts are this repository's 68-question allocation, rounded from the official percentages; they are not a promise of the exact number in each section on the live exam.
| Notebook | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 01_Perform_Quantum_Operations | Pauli operators, SparsePauliOp, Operator, gates and phases, circuit mechanics, feature maps |
| 02_Visualize_Circuits_Measurements_States | draw() options, histograms, Bloch / Q-sphere / city / Hinton / Pauli-vector plots, backend plots |
| 03_Create_Quantum_Circuits | Registers and measurement, parameterized circuits, dynamic circuits (if_test, switch, loops), transpilation |
| 04_Run_Quantum_Circuits | Job / batch / session modes, QiskitRuntimeService, ISA circuits, PUBs and broadcasting |
| 05_Use_the_Sampler_Primitive | SamplerV2 PUBs, shots, options (dynamical decoupling, twirling), BitArray, do-it-yourself readout mitigation |
| 06_Use_the_Estimator_Primitive | EstimatorV2 PUBs, precision and shots, resilience levels, TREX / ZNE / PEA / PEC, manual ZNE |
| 07_Retrieve_and_Analyze_Results | Job status and monitoring, service.job() / service.jobs(), sessions, saving results, analysis |
| 08_Operate_with_OpenQASM | OpenQASM 3 structure and types, semantics, qasm2 / qasm3 interop, Runtime REST API |
| 09_Final_Check_Mock_Exam_A | 68-question foundation practice: core concepts and short code reading |
| 10_Final_Check_Mock_Exam_B | Second 68-question standard practice set: short applications of the same core skills |
| solutions/09_Final_Check_Mock_Exam_A_Solutions | Answer key and explanation for every Mock Exam A question |
| solutions/10_Final_Check_Mock_Exam_B_Solutions | Answer key and explanation for every Mock Exam B question |
Notebooks 01–08 have lecture parts with runnable examples, 7–8 coding exercises each (with check cells), and 18–24 review questions each; the answer or solution is folded directly under each item (click Show answer / Show solution). Each lesson identifies a core study path and optional extensions; the total exercise count includes those extensions. Notebooks 09–10 are practice exams without answers: questions are shuffled across sections using the allocation above, you record your answers in order, and a scoring cell grades the attempt at the end. Answers and explanations for the two exams are in the solutions folder.
- Work through the core path shown at the start of each notebook 01–08. Run setup and supplied
helper cells; in core practice cells replace the
None/# TODOparts and run their checks. Optional blocks have skip/resume directions. You do not need to implement every extension before trying a mock exam. - Take Mock Exam A under exam conditions. Run the Start cell, then answer in order: under each
question, type your choice in its answer cell (for example
answer(12, "B")) and run it. When you finish, run the scoring cell. It reports the score per section, unanswered questions, and the correct letter for each question you missed. - Read the explanations in
solutions/09_Final_Check_Mock_Exam_A_Solutions.ipynb, review the section notebooks it points to, then take Mock Exam B and review it the same way.
Use scores to locate weak topics, not to predict a live-exam score. There is no validated requirement to score 80% on both community mocks before booking the exam. IBM's public sample illustrates question style but explicitly does not predict exam success; IBM's separate full-length Assessment Test is the official readiness check. Neither mock here is an official or statistically calibrated equivalent.
Keep all eight domains in your study plan. Spend more review time on circuit construction (18%), operations (16%), and execution (15%) than on OpenQASM (6%); equal-length lesson notebooks do not imply equal exam weight. The core path covers Pauli/bit ordering, state and circuit plots, measurement, parameters and dynamic circuits, transpilation/ISA, execution modes, PUBs and basic broadcasting, Sampler shots/results/DD, Estimator observables/layout/precision/resilience, job retrieval/monitoring, and OpenQASM types/interoperability/REST.
Optional extensions retain useful developer practice: building feature maps by hand, custom transpiler hooks, manual readout correction, gate folding/Richardson extrapolation, and detailed option defaults or local-backend edge cases. “Optional” means a later learning priority, not a claim that an official objective or its linked API can never appear on the exam. In particular, keep basic broadcasting, twirling, ZNE, and REST in the core study scope.
| Notebook | Core coding practice | Optional coding practice |
|---|---|---|
| 01 Operations | 1.1–1.4, 1.6 | 1.5, 1.7 |
| 02 Visualization | 2.1–2.6 | 2.7 |
| 03 Circuit construction | 3.1–3.5, 3.7 | 3.6, 3.8 |
| 04 Circuit execution | 4.1–4.6 | 4.7 |
| 05 Sampler | 5.1–5.4 | 5.5–5.7 |
| 06 Estimator | 6.1–6.5 | 6.6–6.7 |
| 07 Results | 7.1–7.3, 7.5–7.7 | 7.4 |
| 08 OpenQASM | 8.2–8.4, 8.6 | 8.1, 8.5, 8.7 |
This gives 42 core exercises and 15 optional exercises. Each lesson also marks selected review questions as deeper practice. Run the supplied setup/helpers and follow the in-notebook resume links; the exercise table alone does not replace the surrounding explanations.
The difficulty revision favors one main decision per question, short runnable snippets, and plausible distractors. It removes many exact-timeout/default-value puzzles and complicated shape combinations, while retaining the 68-question format and all eight domains. The core paths were checked against the official study guide; details of validation and the public examples consulted are in TECHNICAL_NOTES.md.
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
jupyter labOn Windows PowerShell, activate the environment with .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1.
Everything runs locally without an IBM Quantum account. Circuits are executed with the Qiskit Runtime
SamplerV2 / EstimatorV2 primitives on AerSimulator (or AerSimulator.from_backend(FakeXxx()) when
a device model is needed). Cells that need real hardware or the REST API are guarded and run only when
you add credentials. The gate-map and circuit-layout plots in notebook 02 need the Graphviz system
package (brew install graphviz / apt install graphviz / conda install graphviz).
The material is pinned to the exam-era API and is not meant to track the latest Qiskit release.
| Package | Supported range | Tested with |
|---|---|---|
| qiskit | 2.0.x | 2.0.3 |
| qiskit-aer | 0.17.x | 0.17.1, 0.17.2 |
| qiskit-ibm-runtime | 0.40.x | 0.40.1 |
| qiskit-qasm3-import | 0.6.x | 0.6.0 |
Circuit-library circuits use the function forms (zz_feature_map, real_amplitudes, efficient_su2,
n_local, QFTGate). The class forms (ZZFeatureMap, RealAmplitudes, …) are pending deprecation in
Qiskit 2.0 and deprecated from 2.1. Each notebook ends with links to the versioned Qiskit 2.0 and
qiskit-ibm-runtime 0.40 API pages. See TECHNICAL_NOTES.md for version-sensitive decisions.
- Exam page, study guide and sample test (C9008400 / C1000-179)
- IBM Quantum blog: the Qiskit v2.X developer certification
- Qiskit video: preparing for the certification
- IBM Quantum Learning
- IBM Quantum documentation (guides)
- Qiskit SDK 2.0 API reference
- qiskit-ibm-runtime 0.40 API reference
- Local testing mode
- Qiskit Aer
AerSimulator - Qiskit Runtime REST API reference
- OpenQASM 3 specification
When a community example disagrees with the official documentation, trust the Qiskit 2.0 API reference.
- Qiskit Advocate KR: 2026 Qiskit developer certification study — the Korean study notebooks and practice sets this repository is built from.
- QAMP 2025: qiskit_2x_certification_exam_tutorial — Qiskit Advocate Mentorship Program project with notebooks for all eight sections and a practice test.
- Hannan0107/Qiskit-Certification-Practice-Notebooks — day-by-day notebooks with self-check quizzes, derived from the QAMP tutorial.
- jvscursulim/study-group-qiskit-2.x-certification — weekly study-group notebooks.
- algovista-collab/qiskit_v2_study_materials — theory and code for the eight sections.
- MisterSzled/qiskit_flashcodes — runnable code-snippet flashcards per exam topic.
- matthewscottconroy/quantum-computing-study-suite — notebooks, trainer apps and C1000-179 exam practice.
- qiskit-community/ibm-quantum-challenge-2024 — IBM Quantum Challenge labs, useful for transpilation and Qiskit Runtime practice.
- CertiQ: JanLahmann/qiskit-developer-certification-prep — machine-readable syllabus checked against the official study guide and an execution-verified question bank.
- quantum-tokyo/qiskit-certification-prep — Quantum Tokyo community practice questions for the v2.X exam.
- dorakingx/qisquiz (practice site) — section practice and timed mock exams mapped to the C1000-179 objectives.
- vantnprof/Qiskit_v2X_Certificate_Practice — a 68-question practice exam with collapsible answers.
- KurianUthuppu/ibm_qiskit_2_x — practice exams with solutions.
- Luke-J-Miller/Qiskit-v2.X-developer-certification-practice-test — large notebook question bank with adaptive study.
- MrRobert91/QuantumComputingGuide — interactive lessons and a mock exam.
- Schrodin's Diary: official v2.X sample test explained, part 1 and part 2
- Schrodin's Diary: passing the v2.X exam, experience and study tips
Corrections are welcome through issues and pull requests. For changes to version-sensitive APIs or mock-exam answers, include a link to the Qiskit 2.0 or qiskit-ibm-runtime 0.40 documentation you used, and keep the solution notebooks consistent with the answer keys in the scoring cells.
Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.
- Qiskit Advocate KR study group: 박민준 (@minjoon-park), 이권학 (@snow0369), 김보성 (@BStar14), 신소영 (@0sophy1), 조정빈 (@dolf3131), advisor 최인호 (@q-inho).
- QAMP 2025 tutorial: Karim Ibrahim and Shek Lun Leung, mentored by Muhammad Faryad and Raja Babu Jamatia.
This is a community study aid. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by IBM. Qiskit is a trademark of IBM.