5 Udemy Course Recommendations for Data Scientists
Udemy is an amazing resource for people in all fields, but especially for those of us in the tech world. According to their company profile, Udemy is the “largest online learning destination that helps students, businesses and governments gain the skills they need to compete in today’s economy”. With over 50 million students and more than 150,000 individual courses, I’m inclined to agree with their self-assessment. While not accredited and with courses not necessarily viewed as a game changer in the job market, there are skeptics abound in forums across the internet. However, for those looking to pick up new skills, review old skills, or just level up existing skills…I can’t think of a better resource.
During my Data Science journey over the course of the past year, I’ve purchased and taken several Data Science related courses through Udemy. Like anything else, the platform has it’s ups and its downs and the courses themselves can range from being a “mind-blowing, absolute necessity” to “I couldn’t get through 10 minutes of this.” If you couldn’t already tell from this title, this blog is going to focus on my current top 5 Data Science course recommendations on Udemy. Since I fully expect to continue to load up on Udemy courses going foward, this blog is probably the first of several.
These courses aren’t ranked in any particular order and I should also add that this isn’t at all sponsored by Udemy…I’m just a fan!
BONUS TIP: Wait for a sale and then go to town!
This is probably the best tip I have in this blog and hopefully Udemy doesn’t blacklist me for giving away their secrets. The normal prices of the Udemy courses are extremely reasonable and typically range between $49.99 and $199.99 depending on the length and the subject material. Not too bad, right? Yeah…unless you’re desperate, don’t ever buy them at their full price.
Udemy is constantly running sales where that $199.99 course sells for as low as $19.99. Whenever I notice one of these big sales (which is very regularly), I load up. This is helpful for when you want to skill up on some fringe concepts that you’re not sure you’ll ever use…or if you just want 10 for the price of 1. So there you go. Bonus tip: Don’t pay full price. Wait for a sale.
Feature Engineering for Machine Learning
This is the first of two courses that will be featured here by the incredible Soledad Galli. Soledad is an extremely experienced Data Scientist and was selected as LinkedIn’s “Voice in Data Science and Analytics” in 2019, which just goes to show the level of the instructors that Udemy has to offer.
This was actually the first Udemy course that I ever purchased and I picked it up during a moment of complete desperation while working on a school project. Not only did the course aid in helping me ace the project, but I also was able to pick up several advanced techniques that allowed me to breeze through the feature engineering aspects of future projects.
This course was a deep dive into all things regarding Feature Engineering. The material ranges from quick, simple engineering to highly advanced methods. Whether you’re a beginner Data Scientist who wants to understand variable engineering or you’re an advanced Data Scientist exploring alternative methods and advanced techniques, you will find this course to be a great resource.
Click here to check out this course.
Feature Selection for Machine Learning
This is another wonderful course by Data Science whiz, Soledad Galli. This course is an extremely comprehensive overview of all things regarding Feature Selection.
The course starts with a generalized overview of what Feature Selection is and why the process is important. It then goes on to give in depth lessons on filter methods, wrapper methods, embedded methods, and VERY cool hybrid feature selection methods. Soledad claims that you will “learn to implement these methods in an elegant, efficient and professional manner” and she is absolutely correct.
This course is fairly quick, clocking in at around 5 hours of video with several read-thru’s included as well.
Click here to check out this course.
Master SQL for Data Science
Anyone who has read a Data Science job description recently knows that strong SQL skills are key to landing a job in the current market. This is a very comprehensive crash course in SQL taught by Imtiaz Ahmad who is a true SQL wizard. Imtiaz has a background consisting of building financial software on Wall Street for a who’s who of top financial firms and is the founder of Job Ready Programmer.
There’s a ton of SQL courses out there and I’ve taken several of them. The thing that makes this one special is Imtiaz’s teaching style. In the beginning of the course, he warns students that he’s going to be repeating the same concepts over and over and this repetition is the key to understanding some of the heavier concepts. The course starts at absolute zero with a lot of SELECT * FROM ____ statements and each successive lesson builds upon the previous lesson in such a way that the syntax becomes second nature and you hardly realize that you’re becoming a SQL wizard yourself.
As far as SQL courses are concerned, I couldn’t recommend this one more. If you’re planning on using Postgres in the future, this course is a must-have as the Postgres interface is explained in depth as well.
Click here to check out this course.
Machine Learning, Data Science and Deep Learning with Python
Admittedly, I’m a total Machine Learning junkie so I was excited to see that this course was available and was extra excited to see that it was being taught by Frank Kane of Sundog Education. I had previously heard of Frank Kane as one of the people behind the recommendation systems at Amazon and IMDb and hist teaching style and mastery of the material certainly did not disappoint. This course moves at a brisk pace and is full of information that would be useful to Data Scientists of all skill levels and backgrounds.
The only disclaimer I have is that this course does assume a certain level of proficiency with Python as well as a general understanding of Machine Learning. That being said, this course does offer a very thorough dive into Machine Learning algorithms such as Regression, K-Means Clustering, Decision Trees, Random Forest, XGBoost, Deep Learning and Neural Networks, a cool section where you build a Movie Recommendation System, plus a ton of other information.
This course clocks in at around 15 hours of video with additional activities and also comes with very handy Jupyter notebooks for just about every lesson.
Click here to check out this course.
Python for Data Science and Machine Learning Bootcamp
This is the ultimate course focusing on the Python language in terms of how to use it’s power to analyze data, create visualizations, and use machine learning algorithms. The course is taught by Jose Portilla who, in my opinion, is one of the best instructors on Udemy. His teaching style is perfect for the independent study format and his voice and cadence never seems to get boring or annoying…which is a huge factor.
This is a one-stop-shop crash course in using Python for Data Science and includes lessons on the Python language itself, Numpy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn, Plotly, Cufflinks, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, NLP, and more. The sheer volume of knowledge in this course should be overwhelming but the pace and quality of instruction make it both rewarding and enjoyable.
This is one of the lengthier courses that I’ve taken on Udemy at around 25 hours of video plus additional exercises.
Click here to check out this course.
