Well I fell off the data science wagon for a couple weeks and jumped back on to have some fun with Python. Python thankfully is not a new language for me. However, prior to this course the last program I wrote in Python was for a programming class back in 2012. There was some serious dusting off the cobwebs for me as I was going through the Python lessons. Most of my prior Python experience was unrelated to data science.
One thing about this challenge course is that the Python portion isn’t super specific to data science. It’s a general Python course with an overview of data types and operators, control flow (if, elif, for and while statements). The challenge course has instructions on setting up Python with Anaconda and using Git for version control. I did this and soon realized setting Python up on my laptop as well as Anaconda 3 to work with Git was unnecessary. I’m not using Git for Python right now and the challenge course does not require you to. It’s clear the course is prepping folks up for the longer nano degree courses that likely will use this setup.
Python is quite a bit different than JavaScript and my brain keeps wanting to mix the two. This isn’t helpful at all as I’m working through two separate programming courses (JavaScript, Python) concurrently. After the challenge course I would like to give Python the careful attention it deserves and get some more focused in depth learning under my belt. Finishing A Smarter Way to Learn Python by Mark Meyers is something that would be helpful. Right now I’m just getting everything done as quick as I can as this challenge course ends in a week.
This week after finishing the Python lessons and the remaining two sampling distribution lessons I started on SQL Basic SQL is something I used to use at work 5+ years ago. Now I no longer used SQL and instead MongoDB which is an open source NoSQL database program. Two reasons for MongoDB – my job function changed (I don’t need to pull and analyze the massive amounts of data I once did) and more importantly it’s core to the MERN stack our development team uses for web applications. I’ve used SQL for years so the SQL lessons are mostly a refresher.
My goal this week is to finish the 3 remaining SQL Lessons – once that’s done I’ll be done with this challenge course.
Intro to Descriptive Statistics – Week 1
Intro to Research Methods – Week 1
PS 1A: Intro to Research Methods – Week 1
OPT PS 1B: Additional Practice – Week 6
Visualizing Data – Week 2
PA 2A: Visualizing Data – Week 2
OPT PS 2B: Additional Practice – Week 6
Google Spreadsheet Tutorial – Week 1
Central Tendency – Week 4
PS 3A: Central Tendency -Week 4
OPT PS 3B: Additional Practice – Week 6
Variability – Week 5
PS 4: Variability – Week 5
Standardizing – Week 6
PS 5A: Standardizing – Week 6
OPT PS 5B: Additional Practice – Week 12
Normal Distribution – Week 7
PS 6: Normal Distribution – Week 12
Sampling Distributions – Week 12
PS 7: Sampling Distributions – Week 12
Advanced concepts: Python & SQL – Week 7
Why Python Programming – Week 7
Data Types & Operators – Week 12
Control Flow – Week 12
Functions – Week 12
Scripting – Week 12
Basic SQL – Week 12
SQL Joins – Week 12
SQL Aggregations
SQL Subqueries & Temproary Tables
SQL Data Cleaning