Describing data with descriptive statistics

Descriptive statistics are values that summarize the characteristics of a dataset. Before working on a project, data scientists use descriptive statistics to better understand the dataset they are working with. Think of it like exploring a treasure chest of information, with descriptive statistics as your guide to finding important details.

In your technical interview, you will be expected to be able to understand and use descriptive statistics. In this section, we will look at how to measure the central tendency of our dataset, then explore measures of variability or how dispersed and how much spread our dataset has.

Measuring central tendency

We are exposed to measures of centrality every day. For instance, if you live in the US, you might have heard that home prices in the state of California of the US are, on average, higher than in the state of Ohio. Of course, this doesn’t mean that every home in California is more expensive...