Seventh International Workshop on Quantum Software Engineering (Q-SE 2026)Q-SE 2026

7th International Workshop on Quantum Software Engineering (Q-SE 2026)

Quantum computing holds the promise of solving computational problems that are currently infeasible for classical systems, due to their scale or complexity. As quantum hardware continues to evolve, so too does the complexity of the software required to fully harness its power. High-level languages and frameworks to write quantum programs have also started to appear, e.g., Classiq, PennyLane, Microsoft’s Q#, Google’s Cirq, and IBM’s Qiskit. However, building reliable, maintainable, and scalable quantum applications remains a significant challenge. The fundamental differences between quantum and classical computation, in terms of logic, control structures, execution, and observability, render many traditional software engineering techniques insufficient or inapplicable in the quantum context. This growing need for principled development practices has led to the rise of Quantum Software Engineering (Q-SE) as a dedicated research domain. As such, this is a particularly important moment to foster a focused community around quantum software engineering (Q-SE), that explores methods, approaches, and processes for efficiently developing correct and reliable quantum software. The Q-SE workshop is a platform for researchers and practitioners to address these emerging challenges. It provides a platform to explore new methods for specifying, designing, executing, testing, and verifying quantum software, to share practical experiences from building tools and applications in high-level quantum languages, and to collaboratively shape a research roadmap for this rapidly evolving field.

The key goals of the workshop are:

1. Provide practical and generalizable insights on how to apply and extend existing approaches to quantum software development or develop entirely new approaches.
2. Devise ways in which industry and academia can collaborate to provide further knowledge on developing quantum software.
3. Provide academia with feedback on which skills and abilities are required in quantum software development and where to concentrate on the education of students.
4. Demonstrate to academia new, as well as existing, practical challenges in the field of quantum software engineering.
5. Communicate the latest research findings to practitioners and discuss ways to adapt them for industrial products, services, and processes.

The key outcomes of the workshop are:

1. Understanding the current state-of-the-art and state of the practice related to quantum software engineering.
2. Continued discussion on developing a future research roadmap for quantum software engineering from the last edition.
3. Strengthening and fostering the growing research community in quantum software engineering, including through collaborative initiatives such as a special interest group.

Previous editions

• 6th International Workshop on Quantum Software Engineering (Q-SE 2025)
• 5th International Workshop on Quantum Software Engineering (Q-SE 2024)
• 4th International Workshop on Quantum Software Engineering (Q-SE 2023)
• 3rd International Workshop on Quantum Software Engineering (Q-SE 2022)
• 2nd International Workshop on Quantum Software Engineering (Q-SE 2021)
• 1st International Workshop on Quantum Software Engineering (Q-SE 2020)

Call for Papers

Q-SE invites original contributions that span the full breadth of Quantum Software Engineering, embracing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research.

We welcome work that pushes the boundaries of foundational theory, tackles pressing emerging challenges, and bridges the gap between conceptual advances and practical deployment. Submissions can also include industry experience reports, offering actionable insights into how established approaches can be adapted, refined, or scaled in real-world contexts; research methods for collaborative research, creating stronger pathways for shared discovery between academia and industry; and industrial challenges with real-world quantum software engineering, highlighting problems where cross-sector expertise is needed to devise robust, impactful solutions.

Topics of Interest

We invite submissions on (but not limited to) the following areas:

• Quantum Software Testing and Debugging
• Quantum Software Verification
• Quantum Software Coding Practices
• Quantum Software Reuse
• Quantum Software Execution
• Quantum Software Analysis
• Quantum Software Architectures
• Error Correction
• Quantum Programming Languages
• Service-oriented Quantum Software
• Industrial Applications
• Empirical Evaluations
• Teaching Quantum Software Engineering

Emerging and Hot Topics

We are particularly interested in cutting-edge contributions on:

• Quantum Software Stack Engineering
• Hybrid Solutions
• Q-SE for NISQ Architectures
• Quantum DevOps
• The Intersection of Quantum Computing and AI

Submission Types

We welcome submissions of the following types:

• Regular papers (8 pages, including references): Research or experience reports, research methods, longer challenge papers.
• Position paper (4 pages, including references): Describing a well-argued position in any area of quantum software engineering.

We also encourage authors to submit

• Extended Abstracts (up to 5 pages, including references): Early achievements results in quantum software engineering, work in progress challenges. This type of papers will be free of Article Processing Charge (APC) according to ACM guidelines for open-access publishing, while the other types will not.

Evaluation Criteria (inspired by ICSE 2026’s review criteria)

All submissions submitted electronically through HotCRP will be reviewed by at least three program committee members. Each reviewer will evaluate each contribution for its:

• Novelty: The novelty and innovativeness of contributed solutions, problem formulations, methodologies, theories and/or evaluations, i.e., the extent to which the paper is sufficiently original with respect to state-of-the-art.
• Rigor: The soundness, clarity and depth of a technical or theoretical contribution, and the level of thoroughness and completeness of an evaluation.
• Relevance: The significance and/or potential impact of the research to the field of software engineering.
• Verifiability and Transparency: The extent to which the paper includes sufficient information to understand how an innovation works; to understand how data was obtained, analysed, and interpreted; and how the paper supports independent verification or replication of the paper’s claimed contributions. Any artefacts attached to or linked from the paper may be checked by one reviewer.
• Presentation: The clarity of the exposition in the paper.

Reviewers will carefully consider all of the above criteria during the review process, and authors should take great care in clearly addressing them all. The paper should clearly explain and justify the claimed contributions.

Paper submissions

All authors should use the official “ACM Template”, as can be obtained from the ACM Template page, and submit their papers in PDF format. LaTeX authors must use \documentclass[sigconf,review]{acmart} in the preamble of the main file, allowing typesetting the paper in a double-column format with line numbers for easy reference by the reviewers. The following conference information also must be used:

\acmConference[Q-SE 2026]{7th International Workshop on Quantum Software Engineering}{April 12-18, 2026} {Rio de Janeiro, Brazil}
\acmYear{2026}
\copyrightyear{2026}

Submission link

https://icse2026-qse2026.hotcrp.com/

Important dates

• Papers Submission: Mon 27 Oct 2025 AoE (New Deadline)
• Acceptance Notification: Mon 24 Nov 2025 AoE
• Camera Ready: Mon 26 Jan 2026 AoE