Introduction to Classical and Quantum Computing

What Hacker News says

1. msolomentsevSep 2026
   Hi HN - If you're anything like me, you've seen the occasional quantum computing posts here and skimmed through them, hoping that the comments would explain the significance (or lack thereof) of the results in question. I got to the point where I just wanted to read a proper book about the field, so that I could understand what quantum computing 'is' at a high level (I'm technical, with an EE PhD, but not a physics or CS guy).

   Unfortunately, I found that there wasn't really a text that fit my needs. There are books that explain the math/CS theory at an appropriate level (I recommend Scott Aaronson's Quantum Computing Since Democritus and Thomas Wong's Introduction to Classical and Quantum Computing), but nothing that deals with the hardware or the applications (both of which I am very interested in).

   So I did a lot of self-education and paper-reading, and wrote the book I wanted to read. It's called Quantum Computing for the Confused, and it's available online (and in pdf/epub) completely free. It's fairly short (40k words) and meant to be accessible to audiences with a bit of technical literacy. I'll also note that it is 100% human generated! :)

   The book has four sections, each looking at a different aspect of quantum computing: its theory; how these systems are implemented in real hardware; what quantum computers may be used for; and what the industry looks like today. I think this work fills an important niche in layman-oriented writing about the field, which I think does not do a good job making itself intelligible to outsiders.

   If you're interested, you can find it here: https://quantumcomputingfortheconfused.com/

   Happy to discuss and chat further. Cheers!

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2. msolomentsevApr 2026
   Thanks for sharing this. I think there are a few books in this vein: intro to quantum algorithms, basically. I particularly liked Thomas Wong's “Introduction to Classical and Quantum Computing”. I'm not so particularly interested in the math details, and I want my book to go further. I haven't found any (layman-friendly) text that breaks down the actual mechanisms of operation behind the qubit modalities, considers the implications of successful QC development, etc.
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3. abdullahkhalidsJul 2023
   Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Nielson and Chuang is the standard textbook for quantum computing. It has excellent background chapters on linear algebra and quantum mechanics, that will get you a lot of mileage.

   Another book that I would recommend is Introduction to Classical and Quantum Computing by Thomas Wong. It's recent and has lots of examples, including lots of code, to show how to work with the math.

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4. ivan_ahOct 2022
   For another take on the "computer science" approach to QM, check out Chapter 9 in my book on linear algebra: https://minireference.com/static/tmp/quantum_chapter_excerpt...

   I think it's important to understand linear algebra before doing matrix quantum mechanics, this way you can focus on learning the new quantum concepts and understand we are just using vectors and matrices as representations for them.

     - quantum state = vector
     - quantum gate = unitary matrix
     - quantum measurement = set of projection matrices that add to the identity
   

   My book only covers very basic QM—not a full course by any means. For anyone interested in getting into quantum computing, I recommend Thomas G. Wong's book Introduction to Classical and Quantum Computing which you can find here https://www.thomaswong.net/#textbook or Nielsen and Chuang which is a classic.
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5. dangJul 2022
   One small related thread:

   Textbook: Introduction to Classical and Quantum Computing - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30097830 - Jan 2022 (2 comments)

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