2022/01/21 by Junjie Luo, Pengzhan Zhao, Luo, Junjie +7 · 2 citations
Computer Science · #Cloud Computing and Resource Management #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Parallel Computing and Optimization Techniques #Programming Languages (cs.PL) #Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Software Engineering (cs.SE)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2201.08662
openalex publication_date 2022/01/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
As quantum programming evolves, more and more quantum programming languages are being developed. As a result, debugging and testing quantum programs have become increasingly important. While bug fixing in classical programs has come a long way, there is a lack of research in quantum programs. To this end, this paper presents a comprehensive study on bug fixing in quantum programs. We collect and investigate 96 real-world bugs and their fixes from four popular quantum programming languages Qiskit, Cirq, Q#, and ProjectQ). Our study shows that a high proportion of bugs in quantum programs are quantum-specific bugs (over 80%), which requires further research in the bug fixing domain. We also summarize and extend the bug patterns in quantum programs and subdivide the most critical part, math-related bugs, to make it more applicable to the study of quantum programs. Our findings summarize the characteristics of bugs in quantum programs and provide a basis for studying testing and debugging quantum programs.