Protecting qubits from noise is essential for building reliable quantum computers. Topological qubits offer a route to this goal by encoding quantum information non-locally, using pairs of Majorana zero modes. These modes form a shared fermionic state whose occupation—either even or odd—defines the fermionic parity that encodes the qubit¹. Notably, this parity can only be accessed by a measurement that couples two Majoranas to each other. A promising platform for realizing such qubits is the Kitaev chain¹, implemented in quantum dots coupled using superconductors². Even the minimal two-site chain hosts a pair of Majorana modes, often called ‘poor man’s Majoranas’, which are spatially separated but offer limited protection compared with longer chains^{3, 4–5}. Here we introduce a measurement technique that reads out their parity through quantum capacitance. Our method couples two Majoranas and resolves their parity in real time, visible as random telegraph switching with lifetimes exceeding a millisecond. Simultaneous charge sensing confirms that the two parity states are charge neutral and remain indistinguishable to a probe that does not couple the modes. These results establish the essential readout step for time-domain control of Majorana qubits, resolving a long-standing experimental challenge.

Majorana zero modes are non-Abelian quasiparticles predicted to emerge at the edges of topological superconductors. A one-dimensional topological superconductor can be realized with the Kitaev model—a chain of spinless fermions coupled via p-wave superconductivity and electron hopping—which becomes topological in the long-chain limit. Here we realize a three-site Kitaev chain using semiconducting quantum dots coupled by superconducting segments in a hybrid InSb/Al nanowire. We investigate the robustness of Majorana zero modes under varying coupling strengths and electrochemical potentials, comparing two- and three-site chains realized within the same device. We observe that extending the chain to three sites enhances the stability of the zero-energy modes, especially against variations in the coupling strengths. This experiment lacks superconducting phase control, yet numerical conductance simulations with phase averaging align well with our observations. Our results demonstrate the scalability of quantum-dot-based Kitaev chains and its benefits for Majorana stability.