Hey Adam. Good to have you here.

Hi! :-)

How can I help you?

I am a beginner unlike the other popular members over here. I was curious how have you come so strong in QC? What is your background? (Maths Physics or Computer Science)

I have MSc in CS, though I sort of wish I have followed it up with a PhD in maths or physics, both of which I ended up loving more than CS. That said, my MSc in CS was very theoretical, granted by an institute that grew under a math department. I learnt all maths and physics in a rather traditional way: by reading textbooks and solving problems. In fact, I'm staring at a meter high pile of textbooks right now :-)

@AdamZalcman Ow. That's nice. I have seen you earlier giving answers to tricky questions fast. This is the exactly the thing I need for my upcoming exam. How do you come up with ideas? (especially the problems where you need to do some math and give the answer). Do you remember all of the things? Or do you have some reference book or cheat sheet or notes?

In fact, the only reason I'm not doing a PhD in quantum physics right now is that my employer let me join their quantum computing team instead. I even had a recent GRE in hand :-)

@AdamZalcman Ah GRE. So you want to do PhD someday?

No comment ;-)

Regarding remembering: I remember some things and look up others. Depends how often I use something.

I see.

For example, I have Mike&Ike on my desk and use it to provide people with references (though most of the time by now I remember things in that book, especially earlier chapters)

Both

My general advise regarding memory is this: whatever you want to memorize, use it very often.

Create opportunities for yourself to need them.

This can be reading papers, solving problems or just posing and answering random questions for yourself.

In fact, answering questions on this site should help, too!