Methods and apparatus for estimating the fidelity of quantum hardware. In one aspect, a method includes accessing a set of quantum gates; sampling a subset of quantum gates from the set of quantum gates, wherein the subset of quantum gates defines a quantum circuit; applying the quantum circuit to a quantum system and performing measurements on the quantum system to determine output information of the quantum system; calculating output information of the quantum system based on application of the quantum circuit to the quantum system; and estimating a fidelity of the quantum circuit based on the determined output information and the calculated output information of the quantum system.