Methods, systems and apparatus for resetting a qubit. In one aspect, an apparatus includes a qubit, wherein the state of the qubit occupies a plurality of levels comprising two computational levels and one or more non-computational levels; a resonator that operates at a resonator frequency; control electronics that control a frequency of the qubit such that during a reset operation the qubit frequency is adjusted from a holding frequency that is lower than the resonator frequency to an idling frequency that is higher than the resonator frequency, and during the adjustment a first derivative of the qubit frequency at a first time is positive, at a second time that occurs after the first time is zero, and at a third time that occurs after the second time is positive, where the qubit frequency achieves the idling frequency at a fourth time that occurs after the third time.