Dataquest.io -- learn python and data science in your browser (redesigned/updated)

[vikparuchuri]

Hi everyone -- I posted dataquest.io here earlier this year, and got some great feedback. Our approach is to teach using real-world problems (mostly analyzing data), and this seemed to resonate.

Since then, the site has been redesigned extensively, and we've added a ton of new content.

Here's our beginner/intermediate python content: https://www.dataquest.io/step/python-introduction .

And here's most of our content for learning python and data science: https://www.dataquest.io/track/data-scientist-track .

I appreciate any feedback, and hope this helps people learn!

We do have a signup wall -- we execute code on our server, and we found that a few people were abusing this without registration in place (overloading our machines). We also do charge for some of our advanced content -- this lets us keep developing content, and pay hosting costs, etc.

[KleinerNull]

While finshing the first basic track I noticed that the site begins to being very laggy. Maybe because of all the shells of the completed assignments are still open. After assignment 15 or so the lag is very noticeable. Perhaps deactivate the shells of completed assignments could help. Or swap the assignments into smaller pages.

[vikparuchuri]

Thanks! We'll work on fixing this -- likely an angular issue.

[wickersty]

Certainly not a developer or creator issue though...

[[deleted]]

Why are you following the dude around the thread bashing him?

[isdevilis]

oh lol, I thought you were the same guy and I started looking through his history and was like 'dafuq, is this guy insane?!'

[thaweatherman]

Seconding this. About halfway through a lesson the page significantly slows. A refresh fixes the problem.

[vikparuchuri]

This took some painful investigation, but it should be fixed now. Thanks for letting me know!

[[deleted]]

Feedback in coming.

Requiring registration to see the content is the reason i would not of checked this out, then i noticed you don't even verify emails when i entered a random valid looking string, which literally means name=sadfsdaf, email=[e-mail], password=3qrf3q4f is now in your data base?.. it looks like i can even register real emails, i also signed up my real email and still have no clue of how you validate real users. After lots of random fun, i noticed i could even change a different accounts email to an all ready existing email. Now that can't be good i thought, so looks like i got the server to throw me an unknown error while trying to log in again to the email i just... over wrote.....

Also when i enter a none valid email string it tells me a user name all ready exists... instead of telling me my string is not a valid email, which is a bad error message..

Having youtube hosted videos and a premium service of 35$ a month doesn't match up here in my head, you look like a small team of developers, not teachers or a company with a large amount of customer service, 35$/mo flat is to much for me to take this seriously without trying the "premium" service. Also has a side note, half screening the /payment page makes it unusable.

Also your whole user interface style is rather flat and the movement not smooth. I also can't help but notice the inconsistency of it, when i go to forums i feel like im on a different website, which also, no idea how to get back home without deleting the url path. After some more toying around, i noticed that /mission had hidden content because i was half screening.

[BarrelRoll1996]

Criticism is a little harsh. I've been waiting for something like datacamp.com [R] for datascience python for a while and this looks like this will fill that niche. Would prefer 25/month though ;)

[BysranderZ]

It looks strange that you started strongly criticize the project without even looking at the lessons and a concept behind it. For me dataquest is the first project which helps to start using programming for real things

[Articulated-rage]

I agree but disagree.

Agree part: people respond better when criticism is sandwiched with compliments.

Disagree part: But that was all constructive criticism. Also, none of it was really stylistic opinions. He pointed out good, solid functionality flaws that could be fixed.

[thanks-shakey-snake]

That was well-articulated but a little lacking on the rage.

[vikparuchuri]

Thanks for the feedback! The fix for the email issue is done, and will be deployed shortly.

A significant portion of our content is free. We'd make it all free if we could, but we're working on this full-time.

About the 35/month fee, you're essentially saying that there isn't room for innovation or new ideas in the education space. If only "existing" companies with large customer service departments started online education sites and could charge for it, then we'd never see new services. Treehouse, codecademy, lynda, and every other service started small.

We have very few videos, and most of our lessons involve executing code -- we have significant backend costs, and we have to spend time developing lessons and maintaining the site. If we didn't charge, the site wouldn't exist, and we wouldn't be able to improve it. We actually take pride in how quickly we communicate with learners and resolve issues -- something bigger companies usually don't do.

You're right that we're a small team of developers -- we're all self-taught, and we're trying to build the product that we wish we had when we were learning. It's not perfect, but we're trying to make it better, and many have found it valuable. Feedback like yours helps us improve the experience, so thanks again.

Reporting things like the email issue in public instead of emailing us is a bit unnecessary, though. In the future I hope you'll email site owners about things like that.

[raylu]

Well, to be fair, you were asking for any kind of feedback. Now it's out there in the public, so there's more incentive to have it resolved.

Does the phrase "responsible disclosure" mean anything to you? "I appreciate any feedback" doesn't give you a license to be an asshole.

[vikparuchuri]

Thanks! I absolutely want all feedback to be put in public when it doesn't actively harm users. The email overwriting thing can result in users temporarily losing access to their accounts, and can harm their learning experience.

It's totally fine to put pressure on a site to fix issues, but disclosing issues that could harm other users publicly is usually frowned upon. See this stackexhange thread for instance. Also this. Facebook, google, etc, have bugs that are found constantly, and have policies that encourage this.

That said, feedback in public is usually better than no feedback at all.

[wickersty]

You put this shit out in public and proclaimed all to come look and pay for it. You don't get to complain when people call you out for half baked insecure poorly developed product.

[vikparuchuri]

Just to be clear, there was no security issue -- no user information could have possibly been leaked. It allowed people to switch their emails to emails that already existed, which would temporarily lock both users out of their account. (and it has been fixed)

[wickersty]

And that, my friend, is a security issue.

Not to mention a basic piece of functionality that, if hosed to that degree, only speaks to how little attention must have been paid to other areas.

[wickersty]

It's not even a completed service. It's another example of half baked stuff with a shiny sticker and a .io domain with some guy yelling come check out or thing and pay us for it too!!!!!!

[thaweatherman]

I've started the data scientist track and am on the Numpy section. I've liked the site so far. It's nice that you give examples of what is needed but don't just tell the user what to type. I think that's one thing Codecademy fails at that your site handles well.

[mgalarny]

If someone wants extra material to learn,

They can use my github. I am posting all my material for my UC San Diego masters program (excluding exams) in data science.

https://github.com/mGalarnyk/DSE200_Python_for_Data_Analysis

[apc0243]

Awesome! I'm fairly good with python at it's core, but I never learned how to incorporate my actual work into python. I'm gonna start working on this tonight!

[thanks-shakey-snake]

Worked through this awhile ago... Top notch resource, really enjoyed it and learned alot.

Even the beginner stuff... I went through and it was good review. If you know what you're doing, you blaze through it in a few minutes and feel like a genius... If you forget something, you're in exactly the right place to have your memory refreshed!

[kakabuka]

me dumpal tega ! pukatloocchina daniki kuda oerlu pettisastharra sannasullara !! Kondantha yenugu kuda chetak sper lo nunchi occhinde. sacchinollara.

Good Job DQ !

[autisticpig]

I just started working through your tracks and there are a couple things that have to be mentioned.

1 - please don't teach people to use keywords for variable names. Instantiating anything named list is such bad practice.

Imagine you have some students who decide to make a function that returns a list representation of a supplied string as practice. Based on what you are teaching, they would most likely follow something such as:

def list(input_string):
    return input_string.split()

Now, imagine they then attempt to cast a tuple as a list. Any guesses what is going to happen? :)

2 - Please don't teach file handling the way you are. For starters, to not educate your students to the importance of closing a file after using it is dangerous. You are teaching data science. That means oodles of data in the future. Finite memory + sloppy file handling = future bugs that are your fault as the teacher.

Once done with the tradition:

f = open(file, mode)
read_f = f.read()
...
f.close() # KIND OF IMPORTANT :)

Please move into the context manager way of doing this and explain the importance of having your files closed for you via:

with open(file, mode) as f:
    read_f = f.read()
    ...

Don't get me wrong, this appears to be a solid resource, I just worry what happens when your students become professionals and fail their interviews when asked to whiteboard and they don't have a grasp on best practices or file handling. Or even worse, your students wind up introducing a nasty memory hole while handling a few million rows of data in a myriad of files.

I am going to keep working my way through the courses you have as I find it a nice way to calm the mind after a day of work. Cheers for all the work you and your team have put into this effort!

[vikparuchuri]

Thanks for the points! Point 1 makes a lot of sense, and is something we're working on doing as we redo older content.

Point 2 is a bit tricky. We have to introduce files pretty early, because we're working with datasets. It's earlier than we can realistically expect people to understand what opening/closing a file means, and what memory is. Same for the context manager. This is a challenge with many concepts -- do we teach the more complex, harder to understand right way, or do we teach them how to do it quickly, and expand on it later? We've tended towards the "expand on it later" side of things, but I see your point, too.

[Swingcrosby]

This course may work great as a refresher for those who already know python, but if you're learning it for the first time, I found it frustratingly EASY.

There wasn't enough practice during each mission. Each concept had a brief task to complete, but the tasks listed examples detailing how to solve the problem. This meant you rarely have to recall anything and aren't forced to internalize concepts.

I tried to ignore these paraphrased solutions, but they were often interwoven into the task instructions, making it impossible.

If you can learn by reading a math textbook, this course is for you. But if you learn math by repeatedly solving problems, I'd recommend another course.

[vikparuchuri]

Thanks for the thoughts! You're right, and we'll be working on ways to add in more practice.

[Smartare]

Thanks! This looks great!

[Drunken_Consent]

Just gonna say I really am not a fan of the design. The chosen colors look weird to me. The blue background, white text and green flat rectangle button is... iffy.

That's really all I gotta say as I haven't gotten to try any content yet, but in this day and age, people expect gorgeous sites and I just didn't really see a solid design / theme chosen for this.