Working in the Business Data Analytics Marketplace :Business Metrics for Data-Driven Companies (Excel to MySQL: Analytic Techniques for Business Specialization) Answers 2025

1. Data Scientists most often enter into that position by:
✔ Starting as a Business Analyst and gaining experience and additional technical skills on the job
❌ No experience other than an aptitude working with quantitative data is required
❌ Earning a doctorate degree in statistics or computer science
❌ Earning a masters degree in data science

2. Why is it important for Business Analysts to have “local knowledge” of business sectors?
✔ All of the above
❌ Business Analyst typically work in a specific business sector, such as insurance, and every sector has specialized metrics developed for that sector.
❌ Clients expect Business Analysts to be able to discuss their specific business environments in detail
❌ Client provided data typically only contains “local knowledge”

3. Why should a Business Data Analyst have SQL skills?
✔ All of the above
❌ To retrieve data from different types of databases throughout the organization
❌ To increase their efficiency and autonomy
❌ To be able to combine data from multiple sources to create new data sets and answer new questions

4. True or False: “NONE of the nine skills required of all Business Data Analysts are part of the skills used regularly by the typical software engineer.”
✔ True
❌ False

5. True or False: Strategic consulting firms with a software/systems integration focus often introduce the latest methods for achieving competitive advantage…
✔ True
❌ False

6. Hardware & software companies compete in a market that has a very unusual cost structure. This is because:
✔ They incur almost all their costs up front, before the first product is sold, while the incremental cost to create one more unit of the product is very low.
❌ These types of companies derive their value from developing and delivering proprietary intellectual property.
❌ It has high variable costs and low fixed costs.
❌ All of the above

(Corrected: The primary reason is upfront cost structure, option 2)

7. Business Data Analyst Tiffany Yu advises that to learn SQL queries well enough…
✔ Six Weeks
❌ A University Semester Course
❌ One Month
❌ One Week

8. Traditional Strategic Business Consulting firms are the least likely to hire software engineers because:
✔ Strategic Business Consulting generally does not include developing or installing technology.
❌ Strategic planning in the corporate world is critical to a firm’s success
❌ Analysts represent the largest single job type in these types of firms
❌ These firms focus on ways to improve business processes, such as increasing revenues and reducing risk

9. Which other type of Company represents the biggest threat to “bricks and mortar” Companies?
✔ Digital Companies
❌ Hardware and Software Companies
❌ Traditional Strategic Business Consulting firms
❌ Business Consulting firms with an IT focus

10. What software tool is Data Scientist Dai Li referring to?
✔ Excel
❌ Python
❌ Matlab
❌ SQL

11. The current world leader in market share for remote (“cloud-based”) hosting:
✔ Amazon
❌ Microsoft
❌ IBM
❌ Google

12. For brick and mortar businesses to survive digital competition, the most important factor is:
✔ Does the company deliver its product or service as quickly as its online competitors?
❌ Brand Awareness and customer loyalty
❌ Pricing
❌ Production efficiency

13. “Point-of-sale customization” means:
✔ Targeting individual customers with coupons or other special offers when they visit a store, based on their past purchase history
❌ Every online customer is unique and therefore can and should be shown different prices and products
❌ It is possible to attract new customers by using more customized incentives
❌ Bricks-and-mortar companies are at a disadvantage because they can’t track history as well as online companies

14. One survival strategy which will definitely NOT succeed for Barnes & Noble:
✔ Converting Barnes and Noble into more of an exclusive literary club for paying members
❌ Offering lectures, classes, and other social events related to books in its stores
❌ Selling coffee, food, and non-book gift items
❌ Putting more resources into their web presence and online sales

15. Primary difference in business model between Uber and Airbnb:
✔ Uber sets prices for drivers; Airbnb lets property owners set prices themselves.
❌ Uber transportation is only available in certain cities; Airbnb properties can be anywhere in the world
❌ Uber is highly profitable; Airbnb is not
❌ Uber transportation is much less expensive than regular taxi service; Airbnb room prices are similar to traditional hotel rooms

Business Analysts & Data Scientists Quiz – Summary Table