Data Science Fundamentals You Should Know ☑️
I. Core Mathematics and Statistics:
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Linear Algebra:
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Why: Understanding how algorithms manipulate data as vectors and matrices. Crucial for machine learning.
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Key Concepts: Vectors, matrices, matrix operations (addition, multiplication, transpose, inverse), eigenvalues, eigenvectors, singular value decomposition (SVD).
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Calculus:
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Why: Optimization algorithms (like gradient descent) rely on calculus concepts.
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Key Concepts: Derivatives, integrals, limits, optimization, chain rule.
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Probability and Statistics:
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Why: Data is inherently uncertain. Statistics provides the tools to understand and quantify that uncertainty.
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Key Concepts:
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Descriptive Statistics: Mean, median, mode, variance, standard deviation, percentiles.
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Probability Distributions: Normal, binomial, Poisson, exponential.
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Hypothesis Testing: Null hypothesis, alternative hypothesis, p-values, t-tests, chi-squared tests, ANOVA.
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Confidence Intervals: Estimating population parameters.
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Bayesian Statistics: Bayes' theorem, prior probabilities, posterior probabilities.
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Discrete Mathematics (Optional, but helpful):
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Why: Especially relevant if you're working with graph data or network analysis.
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Key Concepts: Sets, logic, combinatorics, graph theory.
II. Programming Fundamentals:
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Python or R (Choose one to start, Python is often preferred):
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Why: These are the workhorses of data science.
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Key Concepts:
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Data Structures: Lists, dictionaries (Python), vectors, lists (R).
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Control Flow: Loops, conditional statements.
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Functions: Defining and using functions.
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Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) Basics: Classes, objects (helpful, but not essential to start).
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Key Python Libraries:
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NumPy: Numerical computing (arrays, linear algebra).
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Pandas: Data manipulation and analysis (DataFrames).
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Matplotlib & Seaborn: Data visualization.
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Scikit-learn: Machine learning algorithms.
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Key R Libraries:
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dplyr: Data manipulation.
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ggplot2: Data visualization.
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caret: Machine learning.
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SQL:
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Why: Essential for retrieving and manipulating data from databases.
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Key Concepts: SELECT, FROM, WHERE, JOIN, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, aggregate functions.
III. Data Wrangling and Exploration:
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Data Collection:
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Understanding Data Sources: APIs, databases, web scraping (ethical considerations).
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Data Cleaning:
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Handling Missing Values: Imputation strategies.
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Removing Duplicates: Identifying and removing redundant data.
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Correcting Inconsistencies: Standardizing formats, fixing errors.
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Data Transformation:
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Scaling and Normalization: Standardizing numerical features.
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Encoding Categorical Features: One-hot encoding, label encoding.
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Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA):
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Univariate Analysis: Examining individual variables.
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Bivariate Analysis: Examining relationships between two variables.
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Multivariate Analysis: Examining relationships among multiple variables.
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Visualization: Using charts and graphs to uncover patterns.
IV. Machine Learning Fundamentals:
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Supervised Learning:
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Regression: Predicting continuous values (linear regression, polynomial regression).
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Classification: Predicting categories (logistic regression, decision trees, random forests, support vector machines, k-nearest neighbors).
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Model Evaluation Metrics: R-squared, RMSE (regression), accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, AUC (classification).
• Unsupervised Learning:
• Clustering: Grouping similar data points (k-means, hierarchical clustering).
• Dimensionality Reduction: Reducing the number of features (principal component analysis).
• Model Selection and Evaluation: