Graded Quiz: What Data Scientists Do :What is Data Science? (IBM Data Science Professional Certificate) Answers 2025
1️⃣ Question 1
You are a new data scientist. You have been tasked with reducing traffic congestion and improving transportation efficiency. How would you go about it?
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✅ Gather and analyze streetcar operations data and identify congested routes
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❌ Suggest implementation of strict speed limits and traffic fines
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❌ Suggest creating more parking lots and garages in the city
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❌ Suggest implementation of surge charges for ride-sharing services
Explanation:
A data scientist’s job is to analyze data to understand the root cause of congestion. Collecting and studying operations data helps identify bottlenecks and propose data-driven solutions.
2️⃣ Question 2
Taxi ride with fixed base fare + variable cost based on distance/time in traffic. Which concept does this resemble?
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✅ Regression analysis
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❌ Data visualization with R
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❌ Nearest neighbor algorithm
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❌ Unstructured data extraction
Explanation:
This scenario describes a continuous output (fare) predicted by multiple variables (distance, time). That is exactly what regression analysis models.
3️⃣ Question 3
Pick the file format that is:
a) self-descriptive
b) human & machine readable
c) great for Internet-based data sharing.
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❌ Microsoft Excel Open XML Spreadsheet (XLSX)
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❌ Extensible Markup Language (XML)
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✅ JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)
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❌ Delimited text file formats (CSV/TSV)
Explanation:
JSON is lightweight, self-descriptive, human-readable, machine-readable, and widely used in APIs — perfect for web data interchange.
🧾 Summary Table
| Question | Correct Answer | Key Concept |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gather and analyze streetcar operations data | Data-driven problem solving |
| 2 | Regression analysis | Predicting continuous variables |
| 3 | JSON | Web-friendly data interchange |