# Q#: Enabling scalable quantum computing and development with a high-level domain-specific language

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.00652 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.00652/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 1 Mar 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [Recent advances for quantum classifiers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.13421/) (2021)
- [Quantum Neural Network Classifiers: A Tutorial](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.02806/) (2022)
- [AutoQC: Automated Synthesis of Quantum Circuits Using Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.02766/) (2022)
- [Comparative Analysis of Quantum and Classical Support Vector Classifiers for Software Bug Prediction: An Exploratory Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.04690/) (2025)
- [Differentiable Quantum Programming with Unbounded Loops](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.04507/) (2022)
- [TorchQuantumDistributed](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.19291/) (2025)
- [Transpiler Autotuning with Predictive Models for Quantum Circuit Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.29145/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Quantum computing exploits quantum phenomena such as superposition and entanglement to realize a form of parallelism that is not available to traditional computing. It offers the potential of significant computational speed-ups in quantum chemistry, materials science, cryptography, and machine learning. The dominant approach to programming quantum computers is to provide an existing high-level language with libraries that allow for the expression of quantum programs. This approach can permit computations that are meaningless in a quantum context; prohibits succinct expression of interaction between classical and quantum logic; and does not provide important constructs that are required for quantum programming. We present Q#, a quantum-focused domain-specific language explicitly designed to correctly, clearly and completely express quantum algorithms. Q# provides a type system, a tightly constrained environment to safely interleave classical and quantum computations; specialized syntax, symbolic code manipulation to automatically generate correct transformations of quantum operations, and powerful functional constructs which aid composition.