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Below you will find frequently asked questions around the Quantum Explorers program, and the answers to each.
We may update this throughout the duration of the program.
The #1 piece of advice we have: Be kind and patient 😄
Register on the Quantum Explorers portal by signing in with your IBMid or create a new account using the IBMid option if you don't have one.
Important: use the IBMid option, not Google, LinkedIn, etc.
Soon after you've registered, you'll get an email from IBM Quantum with the subject You have been added to a new project in IBM Quantum, which means you've been granted access to the Quantum Explorers portal.
Note: it may take some time for that email to be generated. There is no other registration acknowledgement email.
Once you receive that email, please return to the portal and begin your journey. All important links such as the invite to the Discord server, the Attendee Guide, and the message from Space Command are provided in the side panel, shown in red.
Log in to the Quantum Explorers portal and find the server invite in the side panel, shown in the answer above.
You need IBMid associated with your IBM Quantum account in order to participate on the Quantum Explorers portal. You need to log in with the IBMid option.
If you don't already have one, please register a new IBMid using the SAME email address associated with your IBM Quantum account.
Please try the following to troubleshoot login issues:
- Ensure you are are logging in with the IBMid option i.e., not using the Single Sign-on from Google account, GitHub account, etc.)
- Change your VPN settings or switch off your VPN if you are using one.
- Try different browsers, and use desktop not mobile. Avoid using Safari.
- Where possible, create an IBMid with an email address associated with your affiliation. Eg. university email address if you are affiliated with a university.
If none of the above seems to work, please open a support ticket by submitting this form.
Please make sure you have an IBMid and are logging in with the IBMid option i.e., not using the Single Sign-on from Google account, GitHub account, etc. If the problem persists, please open a support ticket by submitting this form.
Please make sure you have an IBMid and are logging in with the IBMid option i.e., not using the Single Sign-on from Google account, GitHub account, etc.)
One reason your IBMid may be automatically disabled is that your email address doesn't match your affiliation. Try creating a new IBMid with an email address associated with your affiliation. Eg. university email address if you are affiliated with a university.
In order to request your account to be reviewed and enabled, please fill the IBM Quantum appeal form (link will be available on the sign in page if your account has been disabled), following the directions provided there carefully. After you've submitted that form, please open a Quantum Explorers specific support ticket by submitting this form, which the Quantum Explorers team has access to, and we will do our best to expedite the appeal process.
Yes, to an extent. You can use the openly available study materials to learn, such as the notebooks in this Github, and the Captain - Quantum Computing and Qiskit 101 syllabus. You cannot, however, earn a badge or access the badge notebooks.
The program consists of 7 space exploration achievements to unlock through various learning tasks. Each badge has a notebook on the portal with instructions and assessments in order to unlock it. The Discord server is a thriving community where people can support each other, create their own space exploration storylines, and seek mentor help as they learn.
Please read the Attendee Guide linked in the portal and in the Discord server for details and further instructions on how the program works.
Within each badge notebook, on the on the Quantum Explorers portal, you will find guidelines to submit an answer. You formally submit your code by running the grader cell. It's important to remember that when you change code in any cell, you need to run that cell before submitting to the grader again.
Servers sometimes take a while to load, especially if hundreds of people request them at the same time. Please have patience, and try again in a few minutes.
I encountered this error when accessing a badge notebook Cannot open, Cannot find path quantum-explorers/2023/lab_/.ipynb:
If you have successfully registered for Quantum Explorers and encounter this error in your Lab environment, simply click Dismiss. You can navigate to the file directly through your Lab file browser by going to the quantum-explorers folder, and then the 2023 folder.
I encountered this error Failed: 400 Client Error: / Failed: 401 Client Error: Unauthorized for url:
For one of these errors:
Failed: 400 Client Error: Bad Request for url: https://auth.quantum-computing.ibm.com/api/users/loginWithTokenFailed: 401 Client Error: Unauthorized for url: https://auth.quantum-computing.ibm.com/api/users/loginWithToken
If running in Quantum Lab try the following steps
- From lab notebook go into
Filemenu and selectControl Hub Panel - Click on
Stop my Lab - After it has stopped, click on
Logout - Log back into the Quantum Lab (using IBMid option)
- Try running the notebook cells and grading again
If you still have the issues then continue with the following extra steps
- Go to your Account details (can be accessed from user icon top right corner in lab)
- Copy your API token
- In the lab notebook, restart the kernel
- Enter the following in a new cell at the top of the notebook (set it to the token copied from your Account details... do not use quotes)
%env QXToken=YOUR_IBM_QUANTUM_TOKEN
- Run the cell
- Continue/try running rest of the notebook cells
If running the notebook locally, you can try to run the following code in your local Jupyter notebook cell.
%env QXToken=YOUR_IBM_QUANTUM_TOKEN
%env QC_GRADING_ENDPOINT=https://qac-grading.quantum-computing.ibm.com
%env QXAuthURL=https://auth.quantum-computing.ibm.com/api
You may need to run these again every time after restarting kernel. You can verify these environmental variables by running the following code:
import os
print(os.environ['QXToken'])
print(os.environ['QC_GRADING_ENDPOINT'])
print(os.environ['QXAuthURL'])