Endless fun in high dimensions—A quantum card game

Abstract

Quantum technologies enable new ways to distribute and process information. The enormous progress over the recent decades has led to an urgent need for new educational programs to train professionals to work in this field. Here, we present a card game that teaches students the building blocks of quantum computing through strategic gameplay. Participants start from the lowest quantum state and play cards that change their state and/or their opponents' state, aiming to build an algorithm that achieves the highest possible quantum state. Players can utilize several different strategies that rely on quantum features such as randomness, superposition, interference, and entanglement. Our game expands on the existing Q|Cards⟩ game, originally developed using traditional qubits (with 2-level states), by including an option to play with qutrits (with 3-level states), and by developing cooperative and single player modes in addition to the existing competitive mode. The presented game contributes to the ongoing efforts on gamifying quantum physics education with a particular focus on the counter-intuitive features that make quantum computing powerful.