QCSim VS QuTiP

I implemented one myself, just for fun: https://github.com/aromanro/QCSim I intend to extend/improve it further. For somebody that knows C++ maybe it's worth checking out.

Just for fun, since you are a software engineer, do what I did while you go over that book: implement a quantum computer simulator (here it is mine: https://github.com/aromanro/QCSim).

If beginner, get this: https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/books/quantum-computation-and-quantum-information/01E10196D0A682A6AEFFEA52D53BE9AE#overview go over it and if you can implement a quantum computing simulator afterwards (it's easy, here is one I implemented: https://github.com/aromanro/QCSim), you probably can take an informed decision.

I can think of only two things that might appear a little bit more complex: partial measurement of the register and extending the operators to be applied on the register, otherwise it's quite straightforward. I added some notes in the README for the project describing the code a little: https://github.com/aromanro/QCSim

I implemented that here: https://github.com/aromanro/QCSim/blob/master/QCSim/ShorCode.h part of this project: https://github.com/aromanro/QCSim

Here is the code again: https://github.com/aromanro/QCSim just in case you don't see my other comment.

That's what I did: https://github.com/aromanro/QCSim

I think Python would be a more mainstream choice and so you'll find modules like qiskit or [qutip(https://qutip.org/) already exist and will make life easier.

If you want to be a bit more physics-focused in your coding, it might help to dig up a course or textbook on numerical methods in physics. Being able to numerically solve differential equations is probably the most generally applicable skill in physics. Machine learning methods are pretty ''hot right now'' and might be fun to have a look into. And for quantum technology in particular, you might enjoy having a look at some python packages like Kwant for quantum transport, QuTiP for quantum dynamics and Qiskit for quantum computing. You won't understand the physics for this for quite some time, they might help serve as a bit of inspiration and an indication as to what physicists can use programming for.

If you're talking about simulating a hamiltonian on a regular computer then you may want to check out Qutip. It's a python module where a lot of this stuff has already been worked out, including simulating time dependent hamiltonians. I did an undergrad project on QC and this helped me get past a lot of the roadblocks like this and freed up more time to learn about the field, it also becomes a useful toy to play around with and get an intuition for a lot of stuff.