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Choosing measurements per round

There is no single right number — it depends on the task type.

  • Decision / combinatorial (max-cut, QUBO, QAOA bitstrings): very few measurements per round can be enough, and at the tightest budgets fewer is sometimes better. Start at 1 and increase only if it stalls.
  • Regulation / continuous precision: tracking error falls with more reads per round (about 1/N). Spend reads here when you need accuracy.

Find your point with a short sweep

copyfor S in (1, 2, 4, 8, 16):
    quality = run_trial(shots_per_round=S, budget=B)
    print(S, quality)        # pick the smallest S that hits your target

Gate the whole thing with the envelope first — if it returns DECLINE, no shot setting will beat your current method on that problem.