Many data science beginners can solve any data science problem by following a tutorial, but they often struggle to solve a new data science problem. It’s not easy for beginners to start solving a problem when they see a new problem statement. So, if you are one of those who don’t know how to solve a data science problem, this article is for you. In this article, I will guide you step by step on how to solve a data science problem.
Here’s How to Solve a Data Science Problem
There are so many areas where we can use data science. You can’t solve every new data science problem by following a single process. You have to be different with different problem statements and different datasets. But if you know what the end goal of a problem is, you can start somewhere. So you need to follow a step-by-step process that can guide you through starting and ending the solution of a data science problem.
I have created a step by step guide on how can solve a data science problem as a beginner. Here you will not see the process of a data science project. You will see a step by step process on how to approach a data science problem. So below are all the steps you should follow step by step while solving a data science problem.
Understand the Problem Statement
The first step is the most important. Here you need to understand your problem statement. Go through the problem statement to understand the end goal of the problem. A problem statement will always describe the end goal of the problem.
Determine the Goal
Now the next step is to determine the end goal of the problem. After understanding the problem statement, you need to determine what you need to do to solve the problem. The end goal can be building a recommendation system, finding relationships, performing sentiment analysis, classifying data, regression analysis, clustering, or any data science use case that you have heard.
Now Check Your Data
If you are a beginner, you will get the dataset with the problem statement itself. After determining the end goal of the problem, you need to check whether or not your dataset is labelled according to your end goal. If it’s not labelled according to your end goal, you need to label it correctly first. But as a beginner, most of the time, you will get a labelled dataset. You will only get unlabeled data when your end goal is clustering.
Now Analyze Your Data
Your next step is to analyze your data to see how the features in your dataset relate to each other. Understanding the data helps solve any problem statement, regardless of the end goal. If you don’t know how to choose a data visualization chart to analyze your data, you can learn all about choosing a data visualization chart from here.
Now Move Towards Your End Goal
Now the final step is moving towards the end goal of your problem. Before reaching this step, you will learn a lot about your data. If your end goal is classification, prepare your data accordingly. If your end goal is building a recommendation system, prepare the data accordingly. You have to prepare the data according to the end goal, and then you have to solve the problem to reach the end goal.
If you want to see practical examples of how to solve a data science problem step by step, you can find a list of data science projects for beginners solved and explained using Python from here.
Summary
So this is how you can solve any type of data science problem. Below are all the steps that you should always follow while solving a data science problem:
- Understand the problem statement
- Determine the end goal
- Check Your Dataset
- Analyze your data
- Then move toward the end goal
I hope you liked this article on a step by step guide to solving a data science problem. Feel free to ask valuable questions in the comments section below.
