Mutation-Based Quantum Software Testing

Macario Polo-Usaola, Manuel Serrano, Ignacio García-Rodríguez de Guzmán

2025

Abstract

Quantum technology is rapidly improving the capacity of quantum computers, increasing the number of cubits and fostering the development of quantum software capable of solving complex problems that, until now, were beyond the reach of the most powerful classical computers. Unfortunately, quantum computational capacity is growing faster than Quantum Software Engineering, which is necessary to avoid a new (quantum) software crisis. In this article, we focus on quantum software testing, with the specific goal of ensuring the quality of quantum software. For this purpose, we propose to apply the mutation-based software testing technique, applied to the context of quantum computing, since mutation has proven to be one of the most powerful tools to improve the quality of test suites. A set of quantum mutation operators have been developed to improve quantum test suites, and reduce the number of test cases required, which is important due to the cost of using quantum computers (and the need to run each circuit multiple times to obtain reliable results due to their stochastic nature). A tool for automating the generation of quantum mutants from original quantum circuits is also presented.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Polo-Usaola M., Serrano M. and García-Rodríguez de Guzmán I. (2025). Mutation-Based Quantum Software Testing. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Quantum Software - Volume 1: IQSOFT; ISBN 978-989-758-761-0, SciTePress, pages 138-145. DOI: 10.5220/0013561000004525

in Bibtex Style

@conference{iqsoft25,
author={Macario Polo-Usaola and Manuel Serrano and Ignacio García-Rodríguez de Guzmán},
title={Mutation-Based Quantum Software Testing},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Quantum Software - Volume 1: IQSOFT},
year={2025},
pages={138-145},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013561000004525},
isbn={978-989-758-761-0},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Quantum Software - Volume 1: IQSOFT
TI - Mutation-Based Quantum Software Testing
SN - 978-989-758-761-0
AU - Polo-Usaola M.
AU - Serrano M.
AU - García-Rodríguez de Guzmán I.
PY - 2025
SP - 138
EP - 145
DO - 10.5220/0013561000004525
PB - SciTePress