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Are Algorithms and Data Structures Essential for Success in Data Science?
A Casual Dive into Why These Skills Might Be the Missing Link in Your Data Science Journey
Why Are We Even Talking About Algorithms in Data Science?
Alright, let’s get straight to the point — data science is all about finding patterns in data and making smart decisions from it. And that sounds simple enough, right? But when you’re actually in the weeds, analyzing data sets, trying to optimize models, and ensuring your code doesn’t take forever to run, you quickly realize: there’s more to this field than just crunching numbers.
And that’s where algorithms and data structures come in. Let me share a little story here.
When I Realized Data Structures Were My Secret Weapon
A few years back, I landed my first real data science project. It was a massive data-cleaning task with a dataset larger than I’d ever worked with. I started confidently, but the code I wrote to sift through this data started crawling by. My computer practically froze every time I hit “run.”
I was pulling my hair out until a friend (a software engineer, no less) looked over my shoulder and said, “Why don’t you just use a hash table for that?” And I thought…
