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DataCamp Review: Learn to Code Through Practice
If you want to learn to code, sometimes it’s just best to take a hands-on approach. Because the more you practice coding, the more comfortable you’ll feel with it. Then, eventually, you will hit a point where you can master it. This focus on doing is what sets DataCamp apart from others. So whether you want to learn R or Python for data science, or dive into business intelligence and data analysis, DataCamp has a learning path for you.
Ranked #2 from 6 Online Platforms
Ease of Use
Pricing
Features
Support
4.7 stars
DataCamp Courses and Platform
The DataCamp platform is designed to make learning simple with bite-size modules, which are easy to take in. Course content is delivered through videos, exercises, and quizzes, with a focus on interactive use cases. Once you build your skills, it challenges you with real-world problems.
As mentioned, the philosophy of DataCamp is that we learn best by doing. That means you’ll practice coding right in your browser with constant feedback. Throughout your coursework, you are always testing your skills and tracking your progress such as through daily challenges geared toward your track.
DataCamp also hands out XP (experience points) to users based on how much they engage on the platform. Simply, the more you do on the platform like take courses, projects, and exercises, the more XP you’ll accumulate. Overall, it’s a fun way to learn and gives you an incentive to complete more on the DataCamp platform.
Video: What Is DataCamp?
Pros/Cons of DataCamp
Here are some of the biggest advantages and disadvantages of using the DataCamp platform compared to other online learning platforms.
PROS
CONS
DataCamp Reviews and Ratings
DataCamp scores the highest in ease of use and pricing. But it receives a lower score in features and support due to the lack of a community forum and career support.
Ease of Use
The DataCamp platform is clean and easy to use, even if you don’t have any experience with coding. In general, the courses are very well structured, with clear, easy-to-understand explanations and helpful tips. The hands-on courses include interactive code windows that allow you to write your own code and see the results immediately. Overall, it’s easy to use and understand even if you don’t have much coding experience.
Pricing
DataCamp has an affordable pricing structure and can be a valuable experience for both aspiring and more advanced data science practitioners. Additionally, DataCamp offers a lot of free material mostly for learning the basics. Although there are some free lessons on DataCamp, the real heart of the program is its paid membership. Membership costs $32/month for standard or $43/month (location-dependent) if you subscribe for the premium plan, which is competitively priced.
Features
A lot of students find that it’s fun to write code with DataCamp. It’s not only because of its hands-on features but because you can accumulate XP by writing more code! You really get a chance to practice coding with a minimal amount of setup. Otherwise, DataCamp offers many different kinds of data science courses that range in difficulty from beginner to advanced. There’s also an option to earn certificates for your work on DataCamp that you can share on LinkedIn or include in your CV/resume.
Support
Support at DataCamp is generally fast, friendly, and helpful. They also provide tips for getting started on the website so you can easily navigate through their support options. DataCamp also has a lot of resources to help you through the lessons, like their live chat that allows you to ask questions about any part of the lesson. However, there aren’t any discussion boards, which means that for any question you have about a specific topic or assignment you won’t be able to get support from like-minded peers.
Who Is DataCamp For?
People from all walks of life and skill levels learn to become data scientists through the DataCamp platform. Whether you’re just starting out or you want to brush up on your skills, these are all good reasons to get started. Although DataCamp’s primary audience is people looking for careers in data science and analytics, there are also business and statistics courses as well.
The platform works well for people with little or no experience coding who want to explore it further. If you already have some experience and want to deepen your knowledge, this might be a good fit for you as well. Experienced professionals can also benefit from the lectures delivered by industry leaders, which can give them insight into certain aspects of their work that they might not have considered before.
DataCamp contains a variety of courses on topics ranging from programming languages to machine learning to big data. If you want to learn from instructors who are active data scientists, work in the field of data science, and are leading experts in their domain, then DataCamp is also for you. But most of all, it’s for people who want to learn to code in R, Python, and SQL or identify common coding mistakes.
How Much Does DataCamp Cost?
First, you have to understand that there is a lot you can do for free on DataCamp. Whether it’s interactive coding practice or one of their downloadable cheat sheets, DataCamp has a lot of resources for new learners.
But if you tried all of the free courses and want something new, their skill tracks, career tracks, or certificate programs are also competitively priced. In order to enter one of the tracks or certificate programs, you have to purchase the standard plan, which is billed annually.
Keep in mind DataCamp pricing also comes with a free 7-day trial before you have to fully commit to purchasing it. Finally, there are also business plans and enterprise plans for large organizations, which we talk about later in this DataCamp review article.
| Personal Plans | Cost |
| Cheatsheets and the first chapter of any course | Free |
| Standard plan | 25.00$/month |
| Premium plan | 33.25$/month |
Career Tracks at DataCamp
DataCamp offers 12 career tracks for building the required skills tailored to a specific career path. Each career track consists of several courses that build upon one another and likely culminate in an applied project that tests all the skills acquired through the program.
DataCamp’s offerings also include courses aimed at general business users who want to better understand data science and how it can be used in their own field of work. Here are several of the career tracks that DataCamp offers.
Data Analyst (R and Python)
The greatest data scientist in the world isn’t going to be able to harness the power of data until they learn some coding skills. And this course is designed to teach you exactly that. Here you’ll get acquainted with R and Python, two of the most popular languages in use by data scientists.
R Programmer
R is a programming language mostly for statistical computing and graphics. R is quite popular among data miners and statisticians because of its statistical capabilities and its cross-platform capability. For aspiring R programmers, this career track is for you.
Machine Learning Scientist
Learn from industry experts in a well-rounded program that includes machine learning foundations, programming, data manipulation, and a capstone project. This career track teaches the basics of machine learning, including regression, classification, unsupervised, and supervised learning.
Skill Tracks at DataCamp
Skill paths are domain-specific expertise that are critical skills for many professionals. Yet, they are not prominent enough to be a full career track. DataCamp offers 50+ skill tracks aligned with key business functions such as marketing, data analytics, and software development.
Similar to career tracks, they feature hands-on exercises and video lessons from industry experts, so you can learn at your own pace and become proficient in a subject matter. Most importantly, they give you the domain-specific training and coding challenges that you need to be successful.
Data Visualization
DataCamp offers a data visualization skill path that helps you communicate data and findings to people. For instance, you may have to highlight patterns, trends, and outliers through data visualization. Data visualization involves the analysis and interpretation of data in a way that supports human understanding in the form of charts, tables, graphs, or maps.
Data Manipulation
Data! We love it. But we hate it too, especially when we have to clean it. DataCamp strives to empower anyone to manipulate data with the right tools, confidence, and persistence to make it clean. It covers topics like indexing, grouping data, joining tables together, and reshaping them using dplyr and tidyr packages.
Spatial Data
Spatial data refers to any kind of information that has geographical information attached to it. This can be anything from a simple address (such as “123 Main Street”) to something more complicated like latitude/longitude coordinates (such as a GPS point).
Time Series
Time series is a set of data points that are listed or graphed in order and over time. The goal of time series analysis is to look at the data available over a period of time. Next, you can use it to determine what trends are present, and then use that information to forecast future data points.
Deep Learning
Deep Learning is a branch of machine learning concerned with algorithms capable of learning on their own, without being explicitly programmed. It’s applied to a wide range of tasks where understanding is required rather than simply categorization or prediction.
DataCamp Certificates
DataCamp certificates are different from career tracks and skill tracks. Not only are they recognized by industry leaders, but they give you a more personalized experience geared towards landing your dream career. For instance, here is what you can get for getting certified with DataCamp:
Certificates from DataCamp prove that DataCamp isn’t solely about enhancing technical skills. Instead, DataCamp goes further with its certification programs by incorporating career support. But currently, there are only two certification options – (1) data scientist or (2) data analyst with more to come in the future.
How To Open a DataCamp Account
It’s a very straightforward process to get started with DataCamp. All you need is an email to start coding with DataCamp and you can create a DataCamp account. Then, you will be prompted to select which programming language you want to learn including Python, R, and SQL.
From here, you can customize exactly what skills you want to learn. For example, you can learn basic programming, machine learning, statistics, visualization, manipulation, or career track skills. Next, you will get an introduction video to your course, outline, transcript, slides, and more.
After you watch a video or complete an exercise, watch your XP get a healthy bump up. Then, it will automatically move into the interactive coding session. Here you will use the IPython shell directly in your browser to practice coding.
If you don’t know what code to enter, don’t forget that you can always refer to the slides or simply watch the video again. First, you can test your code by simply running the code. If you are satisfied with the result, you can submit your answer to check if it’s correct.
Next, DataCamp will check your understanding with a question about what you just learned. You also have the option to take a hint if you don’t know. But this will cost you XP so it’s often just best to give it your #1 guess.
And there you have it. DataCamp is really just all about learning in small chunks. First, you get introduced to the topic. Then, you put your knowledge into practice with live coding. And finally, you answer a skill-testing question to check your understanding – all while gaining valuable XP.
DataCamp Cheat Sheets
DataCamp has a ton of resources aimed at learning data science. But one of my all-time favorites is its cheat sheets. As you’d expect, cheat sheets are quick look-ups for code snippets related to programming.
DataCamp contains 20+ data science cheat sheets in total. Topics range from Pandas, Numpy, Python, R, Matplotlib, etc. If you can name it, it’s probably there. Each one is as helpful as the other and is great to use as a quick reference while you’re working on your own projects.
But the best part about cheat sheets is that they are absolutely free to download. So next time if you’re not quite sure which command you should use in your Python analysis, this is the place for you.
DataCamp For Business
The business version of the DataCamp platform enables companies to set up and manage their own data science training for their employees. Using DataCamp for Business, company teams can train together and learn from each other’s experiences at a discounted price. Users can also share their projects and data science workflows with each other.
Students learn at their own pace, repeating the units they need to master, and working through interactive coding challenges. These challenges allow students to practice the concepts they have learned in a live coding environment, and instantly receive feedback on their code.
There are 2000+ companies already using DataCamp for Business giving the ability to upskill your workforce. This means that you have one of the most comprehensive and scalable learning experiences for employees, empowering them to become more effective data scientists and analysts.
| Business Plans | Cost |
| Professional | 25$ per user/month |
| Enterprise | Pay per usage or unlimited usage |
Instructors at DataCamp
World-class instructors from prestigious institutions like Harvard, Cornell, and Yale teach you during your track. But there are also instructors from companies like Boeing who are doing data science in their careers to help you along the way.
Additionally, there are also expert DataCamp instructors like Hugo (pictured below) who teaches the introduction to Python course as shown below. One of the best features is that after you listen to any instruction, you can rewatch or download the instruction notes to help you through the coding challenges.
DataCamp Competitions
DataCamp Competitions are actually a new concept that DataCamp introduced recently. Actually, it’s still in its infancy but it shows a lot of promise in a way for students to apply the skills they have learned.
Competitions are weekly challenges where students apply their problem skills to a real-world problem. For example, you might have to produce a report on sales data. Or you might have to figure out how to reduce employee turnover.
The key is applying your data science skills and building your portfolio with shareable work. Further to this, you can even win cash prizes if you have a successful solution for specific data science competitions. Overall, DataCamp has a wide collection of competitions covering all aspects of data science and skill levels.
Summary: DataCamp Review
DataCamp has received positive reviews from users with an average of 4.5+ stars. Many appreciate the platform’s focus on practical skills, as well as its interactive and engaging teaching style.
In general, students like how they can learn in chunks without getting too disconnected from the topic at hand. But the coding exercises that allow learners to practice their skills and test their knowledge is the biggest advantage of DataCamp.
Students enjoy a variety of courses on different subjects ranging from programming languages to machine learning to big data. Additionally, DataCamp offers a generous free trial that will get you started coding right away.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
If you’re still debating to spend the time and money with DataCamp, here are some of the common frequently asked questions.
It was founded in 2013 by Dieter De Mesmaeker, Jonathan Cornelissen, Martijn Theuwissen. Its alternative company name is DataMind with its headquarters located in New York City.
Yes, DataCamp is a legitimate company with an established history and competitive pricing. DataCamp has helped over 350,000+ students, 2000+ companies, and 3,700+ classrooms learn the data science skills they need to succeed in their careers.
If you’re serious about learning to code or just want to get your feet wet without breaking the bank. With DataCamp, you can get started for free. If you’re looking to take your coding skills to the next level and make a career change, this course is perfect for you. With courses like Python and R tutorials, DataCamp has everything you need to become a proficient coder. The interactive environment encourages students to practice what they learn through extensive projects and quizzes. From beginner tutorials like SQL, it covers the basics both in topic and technicality.
DataCamp’s courses are more focused on giving students practical coding and technical skills that they can apply to their current or future jobs. As you code, you can accumulate XP which encourages students to do more. Whether you are a beginner who is just focusing on the basics of coding or are an advanced user mastering the small details, DataCamp is for any level.
DataCamp offers a generous free trial course for up to seven days of usage. After that, there are two price options for individuals – (1) standard plan and (2) premium plan. For business plans, there are also two options available – (1) a professional plan and (2) an enterprise plan. If you just want to test out DataCamp, there’s also a free trial so you don’t have to fully commit yourself financially. This is both helpful for learning the concepts and packages involved, as well as performing these tasks on your own with different datasets.
There are several ways that you can get more from DataCamp. First, you can apply your knowledge with some of the real-world projects that DataCamp has available. For instance, they range from data visualization, manipulation to probability and statistics. But DataCamp’s projects are only available through a premium plan. The second way is by getting involved in DataCamp competitions. Although it’s a fairly new concept, competitions challenge you to use your problem-solving skills for a specific experience. No matter your skill level or what you are specialized in, there are weekly competitions where you can even earn cash prizes and the chance to build your portfolio.
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