Five Quantum Algorithm Breakthroughs, Five Ways to Change the Game

Grover's algorithm searches an unstructured list—one with no useful ordering—in about √N checks rather than N, giving a quadratic speedup.

VQE estimates a molecule's lowest energy by combining a tunable quantum circuit with a classical optimizer.

QAOA alternates scoring and mixing steps to find good solutions among many possible choices.

HHL estimates properties of solutions to large systems of mostly-zero linear equations.