Which is the best course on data analysis or data science on Coursera, Udacity or elsewhere...

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Ujala Shanker


For data analysis learn basics of Statistics, SQL, MS Excel and some R. I have heard about this course Data Analyst from folks at work & it might help.

To be a good data scientist, you need a solid foundation in fundamental statistics, advanced modeling & machine learning techniques, big data systems, ability to understand how relational databases work & run SQL queries and knowledge of algorithms. I have given more details below which will hopefully help you.

  • Basic Statistics- Brush up on basics. Because incomplete statistics knowledge is more dangerous than no knowledge at all- the cartoons below illustrate that :D.
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  • Advanced Modeling & Machine Learning - Learn topics like generalized linear regression models, non parametric regression, Bayesian network & inference, graphical models, hidden Markov models, kernel methods & support vector machines. These are only a few important topics to cover. You also need to be proficient in statistical computing- languages like R, Octave and Python are great to learn. You can study this course to get started- Machine Learning
  • Big Data - Handling data sets that are too complex or large to process using traditional systems is happening in real time today but this problem is going to get bigger in the near future- hence, gradually building skills in big data software frameworks like Hadoop will prove fruitful. You can learn here- Introduction to Big Data -Coursera
  • Algorithmic Thinking - Problem solving is much more efficient, effective and also fun if you can think like an algorithm. It really helps if you know about the following: methods of organizing data like hashing, trees, queues, lists etc; sorting & searching algos; basic graph models; dynamic programming; linear programming; floating point arithmetic; Eigenvalues, stochastic gradient descent & the list goes on. You can start here (the prerequisites are basic programming, calculus and linear algebra)- Algorithms: Design and Analysis, Coursera
  • DBMS Knowledge - You should know fundamentals of relational algebra and DB management systems in addition to writing SQL queries. No need to build advanced DBA level knowledge. This is a good course to revise- Databases: Self-Paced

Hope this is useful!!



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