Section 4 — Run quantum circuits
15% of the exam · ≈ 10 of 68 questions · 36 verified practice questions
What the exam expects
- Differentiate execution modes to optimize job queuing (
s4o1) - Run quantum circuits with a real hardware in the IBM Runtime provider (
s4o2)
Scope notes — what to actually master
- Execution modes: single job, session (dedicated access), batch (parallel independent jobs) — when to use which
- QiskitRuntimeService, backend selection (least_busy), Session/Batch context managers
- Primitives take ISA circuits (transpile first)
- Open Plan vs paid plans, queuing implications
Learn — official resources
The exam is based on these official IBM materials. Study them first; the drills below tell you when you're done.
| Resource | Type |
|---|---|
| Execution modes | guide |
| Choose execution mode | guide |
| Get started with primitives | guide |
| Run jobs in a session | guide |
| Run jobs in a batch | guide |
Drill — verified practice
Every code-bearing question below was executed against a pinned Qiskit 2.x stack at build time; explanations show the actual execution evidence.
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