Data Analyst Course 1 Challenge Questions

What tactics can a data analyst use to effectively blend gut instinct with facts? Select all that apply.

- Apply their unique past experiences to their current work, while keeping in mind the story the data is telling. - Use their knowledge of how their company works to better understand a business need.

Which of the following are examples of data visualizations? Select all that apply.

- Maps - Graphs - Charts

What are the key benefits of data visualizations? Select all that apply.

- They can clearly demonstrate patterns and trends - They can illustrate relationships between data points - They can help stakeholders understand complex data more quickly

What steps do data analysts take to ensure fairness when collecting data? Select all that apply.

- Understand the social context - Include data self-reported by individuals - Use an inclusive sample population

The people who are familiar with a problem and help verify the results of data analysis are called subject-matter experts. What are their roles in the process? Select all that apply.

- Validate the choices being made - Offer insights into the business problem - Identify inconsistencies in the analysis

What do subject-matter experts do to support data-driven decision-making? Select all that apply.

- Validate the choices made as a result of the data insights - Review the results of data analysis and identify any inconsistencies - Offer insights into the business problem

It's time to create your presentation to stakeholders. It will include a data visualization that demonstrates the lifetime trend of people being less likely to attend follow-up appointments as they get older. Which type of chart will be most effective?

A line chart

A data analyst works for an appliance manufacturer. Last year, the company's profits were down. Lower profits can be a result of fewer people buying appliances, higher costs to make appliances, or a combination of both. The analyst recognizes that those are big issues to solve, so they break down the problems into smaller pieces to analyze them in an orderly way. Which analytical skill is the data analyst using?

A technical mindset

A business analyst recently completed a project that their company has decided to use to solve a larger business problem. What step is this in the data analysis process?

Act

A data analyst shares insights from their analysis during a formal presentation to stakeholders. In a slideshow, they make a data-driven recommendation for how to solve a business problem. What phase of the data analysis process would come next?

Act

What practice involves identifying, defining, and solving a problem by using data in an organized, step-by-step manner?

Analytical thinking

A data analyst uses a spreadsheet function to aggregate data. Then, they add a pivot table to show totals from least to greatest. This would happen during which phase of the data life cycle?

Analyze

After opening the ice cream shop on her farm, the same dairy farmer then surveys the local community about people's favorite flavors. She uses the data she collected to determine that the top five flavors are strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, mint chip, and peanut butter. She feels confident in her decision to sell these flavors. This is part of which phase of the data life cycle?

Analyze

During which phase of data analysis would a data analyst use spreadsheets or query languages to transform data in order to draw conclusions?

Analyze

Which aspect of analytical thinking involves being able to identify a relationship between two or more pieces of data?

Correlation

A restaurant is trying to develop more effective staffing strategies. A data analyst recognizes that there are significantly fewer customers earlier in the business day. They conclude that opening later would be more effective for staffing. What is this an example of?

Creating efficiencies by analyzing customer foot traffic

Which of the following terms refers to the collection, transformation, and organization of data in order to draw conclusions, make predictions, and drive informed decision-making?

Data analysis

Which of the following statements best defines data?

Data is a collection of facts.

In data analysis, which analytical skill involves the management of people, processes, and tools?

Data strategy

A company is receiving negative comments on social media about their products. To solve this problem, a data analyst uses each of their five analytical skills: curiosity, understanding context, having a technical mindset, data design, and data strategy. This makes it possible for the analyst to use facts to guide business strategy and figure out how to improve customer satisfaction. What is this an example of?

Data-driven decision-making

An airline collects, observes, and analyzes its customers' online behaviors. Then, it uses the insights gained to choose what new products and services to offer. What business process does this describe?

Data-driven decision-making

A real estate company needs to hire a human resources assistant. The owner asks a data analyst to help them decide where to advertise the job opening. The analyst learns that the majority of human resources professionals are women, validates this finding with research, and targets ads to a women's community college. This is fair because the analyst conducted research to make sure the information about gender breakdown of human resources professionals was accurate.

False

Identifying themes

Recognizing broader concepts and trends from categorized data.

You are working with a database table that contains data about music artists. The table is named artist. You want to review all the columns in the table. You write the SQL query below. Add a FROM clause that will retrieve the data from the artist table.

SELECT* FROM artist

You are working with a database table named employee that contains data about employees. You want to review all the columns in the table. You write the SQL query below. Add a FROM clause that will retrieve the data from the employee table.

SELECT* FROM employee

You are working with a database table that contains invoice data. The customer_id column lists the ID number for each customer. You are interested in invoice data for the customer with ID number 7. You write the SQL query below. Add a WHERE clause that will return only data about the customer with ID number 7.

SELECT* FROM invoice WHERE customer_id = 7

Next, you create a slideshow, which includes a data visualization to highlight the Splashtastic sales insights you've discovered. You've reached which phase of the data analysis process?

Share

A hotel is trying to gather data on their guests' satisfaction with their stay. Which of the following options would best help the hotel account for potential bias in their data?

Surveying guests at random times throughout the year

During the process phase of data analysis, a data analyst cleans data to ensure it's complete and correct.

True

Finding answers to existing questions by creating insights from data sources is the primary goal of a data analyst.

True

Gap analysis is used to examine and evaluate how a process currently works with the goal of getting to where you want to be in the future.

True

In data analysis, a function is a predefined operation whereas a formula is a set of instructions used to carry out a specific calculation.

True

It's possible for conclusions drawn from data analysis to be both true and unfair.

True

Next, you determine the average total daily sales over the past 12 months at all stores. The range that contains these sales is E2:E39. The correct syntax is =AVERAGE(E2:E39).

True

The columns in a spreadsheet are ordered by letter, and the rows are ordered by number.

True

The data life cycle deals with the stages that data goes through during its useful life; data analysis involves following a process to analyze data.

True

Fill in the blank: A set of instructions that performs a specific calculation using spreadsheet data is called _____.

a formula

Fill in the blank: Curiosity, understanding context, and having a technical mindset are all examples of _____ used in data-driven decision-making.

analytical skills

Fill in the blank: For a data analyst, curiosity is the analytical skill of seeking out new ______ and experiences in order to gain knowledge.

challenges

Fill in the blank: Data-driven decision-making is described as using _____ to guide business strategy.

facts

Fill in the blank: During the _____ phase of the data life cycle, a business decides what kind of data it needs, how it will be managed, who will be responsible for it, and the optimal outcomes.

planning

Fill in the blank: To request, retrieve, and update information in a database, data analysts use a _____.

query

Fill in the blank: A business task is described as the _____ a data analyst answers for a business.

question

In data analytics, SQL is an acronym meaning _____ query language.

structured

Fill in the blank: When following data-driven decision-making, a data analyst will consult with ______ .

subject matter experts

In order to get at the root cause of a problem, a data analyst would ask ______ .

the five whys

What is the term for the graphical representation of data?

Data visualization

A data analyst finishes using a dataset, so they erase or shred the files in order to protect private information. This is called archiving.

False

On a railway line, peak ridership occurs between 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM. The fairness of a passenger survey could be improved by over-sampling data from which group?

Nighttime riders

A data analyst is developing a model. They start by gathering data for groups that are underrepresented in a sample. What strategy could they employ to ensure these groups are represented fairly?

Oversample the underrepresented group

In which data analysis phase would a data analyst use visuals such as charts or graphs to simplify complex data for better understanding?

Share

A database is a collection of data stored in a computer system.

True

Surveying customers about their preferences and using that information to inform business strategy is an example of data-driven decision-making.

True

Finding patterns

Using historical data about what happened in the past to understand how likely it is to happen again.

The table is dental_data_table, and the column name is zip_code. You write the following query, but get an error. What statement will correct the problem? SELECT * FROM dental_data_table WHERE zip code = 81137

WHERE zip_code = 81137

When would a pie chart be an effective visualization?

When showing a class broken down by age

Fill in the blank: An attribute is a _______ or quality of data used to label a column.

characteristic

Fill in the blank: Gathering additional information about data to understand the broader picture is an example of understanding _____.

context

Categorizing things

Grouping data based on common features.

Describe the difference between a question and a problem in data analytics.

A question is designed to discover information, whereas a problem is an obstacle or complication that needs to be solved.

Now, it's time to process the data. As you know, this step involves finding and eliminating errors and inaccuracies that can get in the way of your results. While cleaning the data, you notice that information about Splashtastic is missing in row 16. Which of the following would be an appropriate response?

Ask a colleague on your team how they've handled similar issues in the past.

In this query, what will be retrieved from the database? SELECT* FROM employee WHERE jobCode = 'FTE' AND LastName = "James"

All data from the employee table, where the jobCode is FTE and the last name is James.

A furniture manufacturer wants to find a more environmentally friendly way to make its products. A data analyst helps solve this problem by gathering relevant data, analyzing it, and using it to draw conclusions. The analyst then shares their analysis with subject-matter experts from the manufacturing team, who validate the findings. Finally, a plan is put into action. This scenario describes data-driven decision making.

True

Changing the business task involves defining the new question or problem to be solved.

True

Fill in the blank: In a data table, a row is called an observation. An observation includes all of the _____ for what is contained in the row.

attributes

Fill in the blank: To get the data from the database into a spreadsheet, you would first _____ the data as a .CSV file, then import it into a spreadsheet.

download

In this query, the data analyst wants to retrieve data from which table? SELECT* FROM employee WHERE jobCode = 'FTE' AND LastName = "James"

employee

Fill in the blank: In data analytics, the data ecosystem refers to the various elements that interact with one another to produce, manage, store, _____, analyze, and share data.

organize

Fill in the blank: A doctor's office has discovered that patients are waiting 20 minutes longer for their appointments than in past years. To help solve this problem, a data analyst could investigate how many nurses are on staff at a given time compared to the number of _____.

patients with appointments

Gap analysis is a method for examining and evaluating how a process works currently in order to get where you want to be in the future.

True

Making predictions

Using data to make informed decisions about how things may be in the future.

Based on what you have learned in this course, spreadsheets are digital worksheets that enable data analysts to do which of the following tasks? Select all that apply.

- Organize data in columns and rows - Store data - Sort and filter data

The objective of data analysis is to draw conclusions, make predictions, and drive informed decision-making. In order to do this, a data analyst must do which of the following with data? Select all that apply.

- Organize it - Collect it - Transform it

In data analysis, data strategy is the analytical skill that involves managing which of the following? Select all that apply.

- Processes - Tools - People

Fill in the blank: Structured query language (SQL) enables data analysts to _____ information from a database. Select all that apply.

- Request - Retrieve - visualize/update???

The destroy stage of the data life cycle might involve which actions? Select all that apply.

- Shredding paper files - Using data-erasure software

A data analyst has to create a visualization that makes it easy to show which of the top ten most populous cities in North Carolina have a population below 250,000 people. What type of chart would be best for this visualization?

Bar chart

In the data life cycle, which phase involves gathering data from various sources and bringing it into the organization?

Capture

The manager at a music shop notices that more trombones are repaired on the days when Alex and Jasmine work the same shift. After some investigation, the manager discovers that Alex is excellent at fixing slides, and Jasmine is great at shaping mouthpieces. Working together, Alex and Jasmine repair trombones faster. The manager is happy to have discovered this relationship and decides to always schedule Alex and Jasmine for the same shifts. In this scenario, the manager used which quality of analytical thinking?

Correlation

You are in the plan stage of the data lifecycle for your current project. What action might you take during this stage?

Decide what kind of data is needed.

The data analysis process phases are ask, prepare, process, analyze, share, and act. What do data analysts do during the ask phase?

Define the problem to be solved

Spotting something unusual

Identifying data that is different from the norm.

Discovering connections

Identifying similar challenges across different entities - and using data and insights to find common solutions.

A data analyst has to demonstrate a trend of how something has changed over time. What type of chart is best for this task?

Line

Avens Engineering needs more engineers, so they purchase ads on a job search website. The website's data reveals that 86% of engineers are men. Based on that number, an analyst decides that men are more likely to be successful applicants, so they target the ads to male job seekers. What should the analyst have done instead?

Make sure their recommendation doesn't create or reinforce bias

A dairy farmer decides to open an ice cream shop on her farm. After surveying the local community about people's favorite flavors, she takes the data they provided and stores it in a secure hard drive so it can be maintained safely on her computer. This is part of which phase of the data life cycle?

Manage

The patient demographic information includes data such as age, gender, and home address. You review the demographic data, paying particular attention to geography. What geographic aspect of the data may negatively impact fairness?

The patients all live in the same zip code.

In a spreadsheet, what is text wrapping used for?

To allow all of the text to fit inside a cell

What does the asterisk (*) after SELECT tell the database to do in this query?

What does the asterisk (*) after SELECT tell the database to do in this query?

Fill in the blank: A data visualization is the _____ representation of information.

graphical

Fill in the blank: Data ecosystems are made up of elements that _____ with each other. This makes it possible for them to produce, manage, store, organize, analyze, and share data.

interact

You are working with a database table that contains data about music albums. You are only interested in data related to the album with ID number 277. The album IDs are listed in the album_id column from the album table. You write the SQL query below. Add a WHERE clause that will return only data about the album with ID number 277.

SELECT* FROM album WHERE album_id = 277