Data Science VS Data Analysis

Suraj Negi
2 min readApr 1, 2020

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Data Science

What is Data Science??

Data science, analytics, and machine learning are growing at an astronomical rate and companies are now looking for professionals who can sift through the goldmine of data and help them drive swift business decisions efficiently.

Data science is a concept used to tackle big data and includes data cleansing, preparation, and analysis. A data scientist gathers data from multiple sources and applies machine learning, predictive analytics, and sentiment analysis to extract critical information from the collected data sets. They understand data from a business point of view and can provide accurate predictions and insights that can be used to power critical business decisions.

Venn Diagram

Skills Required to Become a Data Scientist

Anyone interested in building a strong career in this domain should gain critical skills in three departments: analytics, programming, and domain knowledge. Going one level deeper, the following skills will help you carve out a niche as a data scientist:

Strong knowledge of Python, SAS, R, Scala

Hands-on experience in SQL database coding

Ability to work with unstructured data from various sources like video and social media

Understand multiple analytical functions

Knowledge of machine learning

What is a Data Analyst?

A data analyst is usually the person who can do basic descriptive statistics, visualize data, and communicate data points for conclusions. They must have a basic understanding of statistics, a perfect sense of databases, the ability to create new views, and the perception to visualize the data. Data analytics can be referred to as the necessary level of data science.

A data analyst should be able to take a specific question or topic, discuss what the data looks like and represent that data to relevant stakeholders in the company. If you’re looking to step into the role of a data analyst, you must gain these four key skills:

Knowledge of mathematical statistics

Fluent understanding of R and Python

Data wrangling

Understand PIG/ HIVE

Data Science vs. Data Analytics

Data science is an umbrella term that encompasses data analytics, data mining, machine learning, and several other related disciplines. While a data scientist is expected to forecast the future based on past patterns, data analysts extract meaningful insights from various data sources. A data scientist creates questions, while a data analyst finds answers to the existing set of questions.

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