Author: Marija Ilic

Marija works as a data scientist in the banking industry. She specializes in big data platforms (Cloudera and Hadoop) with software and technologies such as Hive/Impala, Python and PySpark, Kafka, and R. Marija has an extensive background in DWH/ETL development in the banking industry. Her main interests are predictive modeling, real-time decision-making, and social network analysis. Outside of work, Marija enjoys listening to her favorite LPs on her old gramophone—and never grows tired of its soothing crackle.

How Do You List Reverse in Python?

Small people beside a computer with Python code on the screen.
This article contains everything you need to know for how to reverse a list in Python. Have you ever wondered how to write a program in Python that checks if a word reads the same backward as forward? Or have you simply wondered how to write your name backward with the help of Python? If your answer is yes to either of these questions, then keep reading—this guide will help you enhance your skills as a Python engineer.

Lists and List Comprehension in Python

Everything you need to get started with lists and list comprehension in Python. Here comes the New Year — the perfect time for your own personal re-evaluation and a retrospective of the last year. It’s also a great time to sit down and write a list of New Year's resolutions that you are planning to achieve in the incoming year. Are you going to write it on paper or will you reach for your laptop and, like any other nerd, use Excel or some other tool like Python to save and maintain this list?

How to Generate Random Numbers in Python

Sometimes you need a random number or element. How can Python help? The truth is that randomness is all around us. Think about the lottery, a dice roll, or the (extreme) randomness of your office’s Secret Santa workings. In this article, we'll discuss pseudo-randomness, how it's different from true randomness, and how it can be applied in Python to generate random numbers. We'll also delve into some more advanced topics, like reproducible coding with random numbers and using the choice() and choices() functions to return random string elements from a list.

12 Best Data Science Resources on the Internet

Data science is hot right now. If you want to learn more about it, where should you go? Online, of course! Check out our favorite data science sites. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, these are the sites you should know. Not so long ago, if you wanted information on a topic like data science, you had to look for it—either at your local library or at a university.

Higher Education–Universities or MOOCs?

You have probably heard about the concept of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the last few years. It is an alternative to formal education and is seen by some as the way of the future. Have you taken an online interactive course? Have you tried to create one? In this article, I’ll describe my personal experience with MOOCs and how I grew from a student to a content creator.

Planning a Ski Trip with R Analysis

Each year, I try to arrange some kind of birthday surprise that’ll exceed my husband’s expectations. This year, I’ve got an excellent idea—I’m going to organize a ski trip for us and a few friends with the help of R and the apply family of functions! Overview My husband’s loved snowboarding ever since he learned it in college, and he’s always wanted to find some time to visit our local mountains in the winter.

A Day in the Life of a Female Data Scientist

There I was—at Nvidia Deep learning & AI, the most prestigious deep learning event, waiting for my hands-on training to begin. It felt great to be there! But as I waited for things to start, observing the others who sat around me, I realized something: most of the attendants were men! In a crowded hall where around 200 people were waiting for a lecture, less than 10% were women. Where were the rest, and why was I one of the few female representatives who attended this conference?

Can Python Displace R for Data Science?

R and Python are two of the most popular data science languages, but which one is better? And will Python replace R in the near future? Let’s find out! R vs. Python: the Basics First, some history. R first appeared in 1990; it was derived from the language S, a statistical programming language developed for statisticians. It was (and still is) commonly used in educational settings and is a favorite among biostatisticians.

Data Analyst to Data Scientist: A New Skill Set for a New Future

Will robots replace humans in the near future? As machine learning and artificial intelligence continue to grow in popularity, this question becomes all the more relevant. Which jobs will become extinct, and what will society looks like in the future? If you’re a data analyst whose worried about their job security, don’t worry—there’s still hope for you! In this article, we’ll take a look at the skills a data analyst can acquire to become a data scientist and rise above these pesky robots 🙂

How to Create Good Visuals

In this article, we’ll take a look at guidelines you should follow to create compelling visuals. Our goal is to learn how to effectively convey information through graphics. Have you ever looked at raw data—spreadsheets of stray numbers—and struggled to make sense of it? We’ve all been there, but it’s no surprise—because the human brain processes visualizations and images 10,000 times faster than raw data. In fact, 80% of the information we absorb comes from visuals, and the remaining 20% is text.

How not to show data on a π chart

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of god-awful pie charts and hopefully learn a thing or two about good data visualization. March 14th is also known as PI Day. Mathematicians rejoice! π is a constant — the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter — and it’s used in many different formulas. Baking and eating pies is super popular on this day — ’cause, you know, people just love their homophones.

Introduction to ggplot2

Show, don’t tell! Share data insights in stunning color and display with ggplot2, a wonderful R package for visualizing data. Ggplot2: Grammar of Graphics The end of qualitative data analysis should be clear—beautiful data visualizations. We are visual beings, after all, and a picture tells us far more than raw numbers! Among the many visualization tools, one in particular stands out : ggplot2—a free, open-source, and easy-to-use package that has become a favorite among many R programmers.

Data Science: Market Demand or Just Hype?

Earth’s 7.5 billion people together use several billion different devices, generating an annual global IP traffic of more than one zettabyte. Out of these impressive numbers rises a new field above the others — “data science”. Is data science an inevitable reality, or will it yet be dismissed as just another “wave of the future” that never came to be? A few days ago I signed a new employment contract with my company.