A Course on the Introduction to Quantum Software Engineering: Experience Report

TL;DR

This paper presents a new course design that teaches quantum computing from a software engineering perspective, emphasizing practical skills, tooling, and lifecycle management for students with minimal prior quantum knowledge.

Contribution

It introduces a modular course framework integrating quantum concepts with software engineering practices, along with scalable assessment methods for diverse student backgrounds.

Findings

Students engaged productively with quantum software engineering topics.

Executable artifacts helped students understand quantum concepts.

The course design is scalable and transferable to other educational contexts.

Abstract

Quantum computing is increasingly practiced through programming, yet most educational offerings emphasize algorithmic or framework-level use rather than software engineering concerns such as testing, abstraction, tooling, and lifecycle management. This paper reports on the design and first offering of a cross-listed undergraduate--graduate course that frames quantum computing through a software engineering lens, focusing on early-stage competence relevant to software engineering practice. The course integrates foundational quantum concepts with software engineering perspectives, emphasizing executable artifacts, empirical reasoning, and trade-offs arising from probabilistic behaviour, noise, and evolving toolchains. Evidence is drawn from instructor observations, supplemented by anonymous student feedback, a background survey, and inspection of student work. Despite minimal prior exposure to quantum computing, students were able to engage productively with quantum software engineering topics once a foundational understanding of quantum information and quantum algorithms, expressed through executable artifacts, was established. This experience report contributes a modular course design, a scalable assessment model for mixed academic levels, and transferable lessons for software engineering educators developing quantum computing curricula.