Dataquest

I knew NOTHING about Data Science or programming. After going through the "Data Scientist - Python" path in Dataquest, I was able to do a complete technical challenge for a job interview at a prestigious company, using Python and machine learning models... Read More to predict cellphone prices. The best thing abut Dataquest is that you learn the theory, but also practice at the same time. Concepts are explained clearly, and they take you through the learning process without making you feel lost.

As far as cost to learning ratio goes, DQ has been the best investment of my life. More than any other overpriced college degree or bootcamp. This is not taking into account prestige and other factors of course, but purely learning-wise, DQ wins hands... Read More down.

I had a very great learning experience by learning all concepts and also by applying those technical concept at the same time. Dataquest really helps us with career guidance too. Dataquest has a community of data enthusiasts who help us in all of our... Read More doubts immediately. The courses are also updated time to time according to new emerging technologies. I had a very great learning experience with real life models.

Dataquest is different from other boot camps I have encountered due to their top-down approach to learning. Their approach motivates me because I can perform practical actions/applications faster than if I was learning from beginning theory 1 => beginning... Read More theory 2 => beginning theory 3 => etc.

Their support team is quick to respond with helpful information and a great attitude! The lessons are straight forward, build off of each other, and end with you making your own project. The inclusion of guided projects helps you create a display-ready portfolio for potential employers so they KNOW you have the skills necessary.

I'm very glad I learned about Dataquest and even more glad I signed up!

Pros:
* Self-paced
* Affordable (currently, $50/mo or $399/year for premium)
* No environment setup necessary ( every thing is on the browser)
* No restricted access to python's builtins and native libraries
- there's usually a suggested way to solve a problem,... Read More but if you're already familiar with python you can solve it however you like (i.e using a map function or comprehension instead of a for loop)
* A detailed explanation for each lesson with realistic problems and examples
* Breadth of material: Scripting, Jupyter Notebook, SQL, Data Wrangling, Statistics, and Visualization are all covered.
* Learning tracks are optimized to be cumulative, but you can take courses in whatever order.
* Responsive customer support
* Informative and industry relevent blog

Cons
* It would be nice if you were able to test out of a course you are already knowledgeable about, in order to display it as completed, if you wanted to list your dataquest profile on a resume or CV

This is an excellent course, well worth the investment, teaching by repetitive exercises in many many different situations that force you to PROVE beyond reasonable doubt you know something before moving on. In later exercises, the same old things come... Read More up again, giving you the reminder you need. Courses seem to effectively build upon earlier learned skills. The guided projects are excellent, they really do help you get a feeling for the process of cleaning, filtering, analysing, predicting data. From the perspective of someone who understands programming but lacks all formal training, the explanations are clear and simplistic, but not childish.

Previously I had a reasonable beginner-level understanding of Python and programming logic in general, having used Excel extensively for years. The introductory courses, which almost entirely comprised things I already knew, were still very satisfying to go through, thanks to the to-the-point, repetitive, hands-on nature of the exercises. In any course that I didn't pick up new programming skills, I definitely still gained grammatical and best-practise layout skills

For those who already know some python, this course will tie many disparate concepts together in a way that makes it very hard to progress without durable understanding. For those just starting out, I wish I had this tool from the beginning to guide me -- would have saved a lot of time.

Potential con:
Very business-oriented. Might not be perfect for someone becoming a scientist or a statistician, but then again, the underlying python skills are completely transferable and very well taught.

I'm still completing the course, but so far I have a high opinion of it. Plenty of guided projects to work on, material goes at a good pace, concepts are explained concisely and cleanly.

The one con I might have so far is that the version of matplotlib... Read More on their virtual machines is rather outdated. I don't think it affects any of the commands that you learn, but the newer versions have done a lot to improve the aesthetics of the plots. A minor flaw in a good course.