Hm I see.

Have you solved Mike&Ike? How did you prepare for your first QC exam coming from a CS background?

Regarding coming up with ideas: a lot of problems in maths, physics and CS can be solved by applying certain tricks and techniques. There is way more problems than tricks and techniques so the tricks and techniques are re-usable.

@AdamZalcman Ow this is something I have heard long time back from my teacher.

Ah I see. I have seen some in Game Theory earlier (The applications of this).

I have read Mike&Ike and solved most problems. I no longer have time to solve all, but I found something you can do to save time: I went through all problems and either solved them or explained to myself how I would do it if I had the time.

@AdamZalcman That is impressive.

I never had any QC exam. When I was at the university this was still fairly fringe and I did my MSc in optimal control theory (I was into spacecraft back then)

That said, I suppose that if I had had one I would have prepared to it just as to any other exam: reading, solving problems, some coding to simulate more complex situations

@AdamZalcman Spacecraft.. Sounds complicated.

I see. Makes sense.

Yeah, I suppose they are.

Do you know about QAOA algorithm and understand it?

Not well. I read the paper long time ago

I see. Yes it is used in some places now but I don't understand even fraction of it. Seems Physicists can destroy everything with Hamiltonian.

Anyway, I have no more questions for you. I was surprised that you joined and answered these questions. Thanks a lot for that. For a beginner like me, this is quite useful.

I guess I have pissed most people of this community by asking stupid questions so thanks once again for answering.

no problem! good luck with your exams! :-)

Thanks. Take care.

@AdamZalcman