Data-Science-Roadmap

Data Science Roadmap

From Beginner to Advanced - Your Complete Guide to Becoming a Data Scientist

Last Updated: August 2025

Table of Contents

  1. Prerequisites and Setup
  2. Phase 1: Mathematical Foundations (2-3 months)
  3. Phase 2: Programming Fundamentals (2-3 months)
  4. Phase 3: Data Analysis and Visualization (2-3 months)
  5. Phase 4: Machine Learning Fundamentals (3-4 months)
  6. Phase 5: Advanced Machine Learning & Deep Learning (3-4 months)
  7. Phase 6: Specialization Tracks (2-3 months)
  8. Phase 7: Real-World Projects and Portfolio Building
  9. Phase 8: Career Development and Networking
  10. Additional Resources and Communities

Prerequisites and Setup

Essential Tools Setup

Time Commitment

Phase 1: Mathematical Foundations (2-3 months)

🎯 Learning Objectives

📚 Core Topics

  1. Statistics and Probability
  2. Linear Algebra
  3. Calculus (Basic)
  4. Descriptive Statistics

🎥 YouTube Playlists and Videos

Statistics and Probability

StatQuest with Josh Starmer (🌟 Highly Recommended)

Khan Academy Statistics

Linear Algebra

3Blue1Brown - Essence of Linear Algebra (🌟 Must Watch)

Professor Leonard - Linear Algebra

Mathematics for Data Science

Codebasics - Mathematics and Statistics

📖 Free Courses

Coursera - Data Science Math Skills (Duke University)

edX - Introduction to Statistics (Stanford)

365 Data Science - Statistics Course

📋 Practice Resources

✅ Phase 1 Completion Checklist

Phase 2: Programming Fundamentals (2-3 months)

🎯 Learning Objectives

📚 Core Topics

  1. Python Programming
  2. SQL and Databases
  3. Git and GitHub
  4. Command Line Basics

🎥 YouTube Playlists and Videos

Python Programming

freeCodeCamp - Python for Data Science

Corey Schafer - Python Tutorials (🌟 Highly Recommended)

Programming with Mosh - Python Course

Krish Naik - Python Playlist

SQL for Data Science

Alex The Analyst - SQL Tutorials

Data Science Dojo - SQL Tutorial

Kevin Stratvert - SQL Tutorial

CodeWithHarry - SQL Complete Course

AntonioSQL - SQL Full Course

Git and GitHub

freeCodeCamp - Git and GitHub Tutorial

📖 Free Courses

Python

Kaggle Learn - Python

Codecademy - Python Course (Free sections)

365 Data Science - Python Course

SQL

Kaggle Learn - Intro to SQL

Kaggle Learn - Advanced SQL

W3Schools SQL Tutorial

🛠️ Practice Platforms

✅ Phase 2 Completion Checklist

Phase 3: Data Analysis and Visualization (2-3 months)

🎯 Learning Objectives

📚 Core Topics

  1. Pandas for Data Manipulation
  2. Data Visualization (Matplotlib, Seaborn, Plotly)
  3. Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)
  4. Data Cleaning and Preprocessing
  5. NumPy for Numerical Computing

🎥 YouTube Playlists and Videos

Pandas and Data Manipulation

Data School - Pandas Tutorials (🌟 Highly Recommended)

Corey Schafer - Pandas Tutorials

Keith Galli - Pandas Data Analysis

Data Visualization

Sentdex - Matplotlib Tutorials

Derek Banas - Data Visualization

Complete Data Analysis Projects

Keith Galli - Data Analysis Projects

Alex The Analyst - Data Analytics Projects

📖 Free Courses

Kaggle Learn - Pandas

Kaggle Learn - Data Visualization

Kaggle Learn - Data Cleaning

freeCodeCamp - Data Analysis with Python

🎯 Hands-on Projects

  1. Exploratory Data Analysis Projects:
    • Analyze publicly available datasets (COVID-19, Housing Prices, Stock Market)
    • Practice on Kaggle datasets
    • Create comprehensive EDA reports
  2. Data Cleaning Projects:
    • Work with messy, real-world datasets
    • Handle missing values, outliers, duplicates
    • Document your cleaning process

✅ Phase 3 Completion Checklist

Phase 4: Machine Learning Fundamentals (3-4 months)

🎯 Learning Objectives

📚 Core Topics

  1. Machine Learning Concepts
  2. Supervised Learning (Regression, Classification)
  3. Unsupervised Learning (Clustering, Dimensionality Reduction)
  4. Model Evaluation and Validation
  5. Feature Engineering

🎥 YouTube Playlists and Videos

Machine Learning Fundamentals

StatQuest with Josh Starmer - Machine Learning (🌟 Must Watch)

Krish Naik - Machine Learning Playlist (🌟 Comprehensive)

3Blue1Brown - Neural Networks

Practical Machine Learning

Siddhardhan - Complete Machine Learning Course

Ken Jee - Machine Learning Projects

codebasics - Machine Learning Tutorials

Advanced Machine Learning

Edureka - Machine Learning Full Course

Machine Learning Mastery - Jason Brownlee

📖 Free Courses

Comprehensive ML Courses

Coursera - Machine Learning by Andrew Ng (Stanford) (🌟 Legendary)

Kaggle Learn - Intro to Machine Learning

Kaggle Learn - Intermediate Machine Learning

edX - MIT Introduction to Machine Learning

Specialized Topics

Kaggle Learn - Feature Engineering

🛠️ Practice Platforms

🎯 Hands-on Projects

  1. Supervised Learning Projects:
    • House Price Prediction (Regression)
    • Customer Churn Prediction (Classification)
    • Iris Flower Classification (Multi-class)
  2. Unsupervised Learning Projects:
    • Customer Segmentation (K-Means Clustering)
    • Dimensionality Reduction (PCA)
    • Market Basket Analysis
  3. End-to-End ML Projects:
    • Complete pipeline from data collection to model deployment
    • Feature engineering and selection
    • Model comparison and hyperparameter tuning

✅ Phase 4 Completion Checklist

Phase 5: Advanced Machine Learning & Deep Learning (3-4 months)

🎯 Learning Objectives

📚 Core Topics

  1. Deep Learning Fundamentals
  2. Neural Networks and Backpropagation
  3. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN)
  4. Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN, LSTM)
  5. TensorFlow and PyTorch
  6. Advanced ML Techniques

🎥 YouTube Playlists and Videos

Deep Learning Fundamentals

3Blue1Brown - Neural Networks Series (🌟 Must Watch)

Nerd’s Lesson - Neural Networks and Deep Learning

Neural Networks Complete Course

TensorFlow and Keras

TensorFlow Official Channel

Krish Naik - Deep Learning Playlist

Sentdex - Deep Learning with Python

MIT Deep Learning

MIT 6.S191 - Introduction to Deep Learning

Applied Deep Learning

Simplilearn - Deep Learning Full Course

📖 Free Courses

Comprehensive Deep Learning

Coursera - Deep Learning Specialization by Andrew Ng (🌟 Highly Recommended)

Fast.ai - Practical Deep Learning for Coders

edX - MIT Introduction to Deep Learning

Framework-Specific Courses

TensorFlow Developer Certificate Program (Free Learning Materials)

PyTorch Tutorials

🎯 Specialized Tracks

Computer Vision

Topics: Image classification, object detection, image segmentation Resources:

Natural Language Processing

Topics: Text preprocessing, sentiment analysis, language models Resources:

Time Series Analysis

Topics: Forecasting, trend analysis, seasonal decomposition Resources:

🎯 Hands-on Projects

  1. Computer Vision Projects:
    • Image Classification with CNN
    • Object Detection with YOLO
    • Face Recognition System
    • Medical Image Analysis
  2. NLP Projects:
    • Sentiment Analysis of Reviews
    • Text Summarization
    • Chatbot Development
    • Language Translation
  3. Time Series Projects:
    • Stock Price Prediction
    • Sales Forecasting
    • Weather Prediction
    • IoT Sensor Data Analysis

✅ Phase 5 Completion Checklist

Phase 6: Specialization Tracks (2-3 months)

🎯 Choose Your Specialization Path

Based on your interests and career goals, choose one or more specialization tracks:

Track 1: Machine Learning Engineering

Focus: Production ML systems, MLOps, deployment

Core Skills:

Resources:

Track 2: Data Analytics & Business Intelligence

Focus: Business insights, reporting, dashboard creation

Core Skills:

Resources:

Track 3: Deep Learning & AI Research

Focus: Advanced neural networks, research, cutting-edge AI

Core Skills:

Resources:

Track 4: Computer Vision

Focus: Image processing, computer vision applications

Core Skills:

Resources:

Track 5: Natural Language Processing

Focus: Text analysis, language models, conversational AI

Core Skills:

Resources:

📖 Specialization Resources

Kaggle Learn Specialized Courses:

Advanced Coursera Specializations:

Phase 7: Real-World Projects and Portfolio Building

🎯 Learning Objectives

🛠️ Project Categories

Beginner Projects (Complete 3-5)

  1. Exploratory Data Analysis
    • Dataset: Netflix Movies, COVID-19 data, Housing prices
    • Skills: Pandas, visualization, statistical analysis
    • Deliverable: Jupyter notebook with insights
  2. Predictive Modeling
    • Dataset: Titanic survival, Iris classification, Boston housing
    • Skills: Scikit-learn, model evaluation, feature engineering
    • Deliverable: Complete ML pipeline
  3. Web Scraping and Analysis
    • Target: E-commerce sites, social media, news websites
    • Skills: BeautifulSoup, Selenium, data cleaning
    • Deliverable: Automated data collection system

Intermediate Projects (Complete 3-4)

  1. End-to-End ML System
    • Example: Customer churn prediction with deployment
    • Skills: Feature engineering, model selection, Flask/FastAPI
    • Deliverable: Deployed web application
  2. Time Series Forecasting
    • Example: Stock price prediction, sales forecasting
    • Skills: ARIMA, Prophet, LSTM
    • Deliverable: Interactive forecasting dashboard
  3. Computer Vision Application
    • Example: Image classification, object detection
    • Skills: CNN, transfer learning, OpenCV
    • Deliverable: Real-time image processing app
  4. NLP Application
    • Example: Sentiment analysis, chatbot, text summarization
    • Skills: NLTK, spaCy, transformers
    • Deliverable: Interactive text processing tool

Advanced Projects (Complete 2-3)

  1. Deep Learning Research Project
    • Example: Implement research paper, novel architecture
    • Skills: PyTorch/TensorFlow, research methodology
    • Deliverable: Technical report with code
  2. Big Data Project
    • Example: Large-scale data processing, real-time analytics
    • Skills: Spark, Hadoop, cloud computing
    • Deliverable: Scalable data processing pipeline
  3. MLOps Project
    • Example: Complete ML system with CI/CD
    • Skills: Docker, Kubernetes, monitoring
    • Deliverable: Production-ready ML system

📱 Portfolio Development

GitHub Portfolio

Structure:

your-github-username/
├── Project-1-Data-Analysis/
│   ├── data/
│   ├── notebooks/
│   ├── src/
│   ├── README.md
│   └── requirements.txt
├── Project-2-ML-Deployment/
│   ├── app/
│   ├── models/
│   ├── tests/
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── README.md
└── README.md (Main profile README)

Best Practices:

Personal Website/Portfolio

Recommended Platforms:

Content Structure:

  1. About Me: Background, skills, interests
  2. Projects: 5-8 best projects with descriptions
  3. Blog: Technical articles about your projects
  4. Resume: Downloadable PDF
  5. Contact: LinkedIn, GitHub, email

📝 Project Documentation

Project README Template

# Project Title

## Overview
Brief description of the project and its objectives.

## Dataset
- Source: Where you got the data
- Size: Number of rows/features
- Description: What the data represents

## Methodology
1. Data Exploration and Cleaning
2. Feature Engineering
3. Model Selection and Training
4. Evaluation and Validation

## Results
- Key findings
- Model performance metrics
- Visualizations

## Technologies Used
- Python, Pandas, Scikit-learn, etc.

## How to Run
Step-by-step instructions to reproduce results

## Future Work
Potential improvements and extensions

Blog Writing

Platforms:

Article Ideas:

🎯 Project Ideas by Domain

Healthcare

Finance

E-commerce

Social Media

Sports

✅ Phase 7 Completion Checklist

Phase 8: Career Development and Networking

🎯 Learning Objectives

💼 Job Preparation

Resume Development

Structure:

  1. Contact Information
  2. Professional Summary (2-3 lines)
  3. Technical Skills (categorized)
  4. Projects (3-5 most relevant)
  5. Experience (if any)
  6. Education
  7. Certifications (if any)

Technical Skills Categories:

Interview Preparation

Technical Interview Topics:

  1. Statistics and Probability
    • Hypothesis testing, p-values, confidence intervals
    • Probability distributions, Bayes’ theorem
    • A/B testing and experimental design
  2. Machine Learning
    • Algorithm explanations (how does random forest work?)
    • Bias-variance tradeoff
    • Overfitting and regularization
    • Model evaluation metrics
  3. Programming
    • Python coding challenges
    • SQL queries and database design
    • Data manipulation with Pandas
  4. Case Studies
    • Business problem to ML solution design
    • Project walkthrough from your portfolio
    • Handling missing data, outliers, imbalanced datasets

Resources for Interview Prep:

YouTube Interview Prep:

Networking

Online Platforms:

Professional Communities:

Conference and Events:

📈 Continuous Learning

Stay Updated

Resources:

Newsletters:

Podcasts:

Certifications (Optional but Valuable)

  1. Cloud Certifications:
    • AWS Machine Learning Specialty
    • Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer
    • Microsoft Azure Data Scientist Associate
  2. Professional Certifications:
    • Coursera Data Science Professional Certificates
    • IBM Data Science Professional Certificate
    • Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate

🎯 Soft Skills Development

Communication Skills

Business Acumen

💰 Salary Negotiation

Research Market Rates

Factors Affecting Salary

✅ Phase 8 Completion Checklist

Additional Resources and Communities

🌟 Top YouTube Channels for Data Science

General Data Science

  1. StatQuest with Josh Starmer - Statistical concepts explained simply
  2. Krish Naik - Complete data science tutorials and projects
  3. Ken Jee - Career advice and project guidance
  4. Alex The Analyst - Data analytics and SQL tutorials
  5. Data School - Pandas and data science fundamentals
  6. Corey Schafer - Python programming tutorials
  7. Keith Galli - Data analysis projects and tutorials
  8. codebasics - Programming and data science tutorials
  9. Sentdex - Advanced Python and machine learning
  10. Data Professor - Bioinformatics and data science

Specialized Channels

📚 Free Learning Platforms

Interactive Learning

  1. Kaggle Learn - Micro-courses with hands-on exercises
  2. Codecademy - Interactive programming courses
  3. DataCamp - Data science courses (some free content)
  4. 365 Data Science - Comprehensive data science program

Video Courses

  1. Coursera - University courses (audit for free)
  2. edX - University courses from MIT, Harvard, etc.
  3. Udacity - Nanodegree programs (some free content)
  4. freeCodeCamp - Complete programming courses

Documentation and Tutorials

  1. scikit-learn Documentation - Excellent tutorials and examples
  2. Pandas Documentation - Comprehensive guides
  3. TensorFlow Tutorials - Official tutorials and guides
  4. Real Python - High-quality Python tutorials

🏆 Practice Platforms

Competitions and Challenges

  1. Kaggle - Data science competitions and datasets
  2. DrivenData - Social impact data challenges
  3. Analytics Vidhya - Hackathons and competitions
  4. Zindi - African data science competitions

Coding Practice

  1. HackerRank - Programming and data science challenges
  2. LeetCode - Algorithm and database problems
  3. Codewars - Programming challenges by difficulty
  4. StrataScratch - Data science interview questions

💬 Communities and Forums

Online Communities

  1. Reddit:
    • r/MachineLearning
    • r/datascience
    • r/LearnMachineLearning
    • r/statistics
  2. Discord Servers:
    • Data Science Collective
    • Python Discord
    • Machine Learning Tokyo
  3. Slack Workspaces:
    • Data Talks Club
    • MLOps Community
    • Locally Optimistic

Professional Networks

  1. LinkedIn Groups:
    • Data Science Central
    • Big Data and Analytics
    • Machine Learning Professionals
  2. Meetup Groups:
    • Local data science meetups
    • Python user groups
    • Machine learning meetups

📖 Essential Books (Many Available Free Online)

Beginner-Friendly

  1. “Python for Data Analysis” by Wes McKinney - Pandas creator’s guide
  2. “Hands-On Machine Learning” by Aurélien Géron - Practical ML guide
  3. “Python Data Science Handbook” by Jake VanderPlas - Free online

Intermediate/Advanced

  1. “The Elements of Statistical Learning” - Free PDF available
  2. “Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning” by Christopher Bishop
  3. “Deep Learning” by Ian Goodfellow - Free online

Statistics and Mathematics

  1. “Think Stats” by Allen B. Downey - Free online
  2. “Introduction to Statistical Learning with R” - Free PDF
  3. “Mathematics for Machine Learning” - Free PDF

🎯 GitHub Repositories for Learning

Comprehensive Resources

  1. “awesome-data-science” - Curated list of resources
  2. “Data Science Cheatsheets” - Quick reference guides
  3. “Machine Learning Yearning” by Andrew Ng - Free PDF

Project Collections

  1. “Data Science Projects” - Beginner to advanced projects
  2. “Applied Machine Learning” - Real-world ML applications
  3. “Deep Learning Papers” - Paper implementations

🔗 Useful Websites and Blogs

News and Updates

  1. KDnuggets - Data science news and tutorials
  2. Analytics Vidhya - Articles and competitions
  3. Towards Data Science - Medium publication
  4. Papers With Code - Latest research with code

Tools and Resources

  1. Google Colab - Free Jupyter notebooks with GPU
  2. Jupyter.org - Official Jupyter documentation
  3. Anaconda - Python distribution for data science
  4. Google Dataset Search - Find datasets for projects

Final Notes and Success Tips

🎯 Key Success Factors

  1. Consistency Over Intensity
    • Study 1-2 hours daily rather than cramming
    • Build a sustainable learning routine
    • Set weekly and monthly goals
  2. Practice Over Theory
    • Implement what you learn immediately
    • Focus on projects over just watching tutorials
    • Learn by doing, not just reading
  3. Build in Public
    • Share your projects on GitHub
    • Write about your learning journey
    • Connect with the data science community
  4. Focus on Fundamentals
    • Master statistics and programming first
    • Understand concepts deeply before moving to advanced topics
    • Don’t rush through the basics
  5. Stay Current but Don’t Chase Every Trend
    • Focus on building strong foundations
    • Pick one or two specializations to go deep
    • Keep up with major developments without getting distracted

🚀 Accelerated Learning Tips

  1. Join Study Groups
    • Find accountability partners
    • Participate in online communities
    • Teach others what you learn
  2. Set Up Projects Early
    • Start building portfolio from month 1
    • Document everything as you learn
    • Solve real problems with your skills
  3. Network Actively
    • Connect with data scientists on LinkedIn
    • Attend virtual meetups and conferences
    • Contribute to open source projects
  4. Learn from Multiple Sources
    • Don’t rely on just one resource
    • Cross-reference concepts across different materials
    • Find the teaching style that works for you

⚠️ Common Pitfalls to Avoid

  1. Tutorial Hell
    • Don’t just consume content passively
    • Apply what you learn immediately
    • Focus on building rather than just learning
  2. Perfectionism
    • Ship projects even if they’re not perfect
    • Iterate and improve over time
    • Done is better than perfect
  3. Tool Obsession
    • Master fundamentals before learning new tools
    • Focus on solving problems, not using fancy tools
    • Understand when to use which tool
  4. Isolation
    • Don’t learn alone
    • Engage with the community
    • Ask questions and help others

🎉 Celebrating Milestones

Set up celebration points throughout your journey:

📞 Getting Help

When stuck, use these resources:

  1. Google - Often someone has faced your exact problem
  2. Stack Overflow - Programming questions and answers
  3. Reddit communities - Friendly help from peers
  4. Discord/Slack channels - Real-time community support
  5. Kaggle Forums - Data science specific discussions
  6. GitHub Issues - For tool-specific problems

Conclusion

This roadmap provides a comprehensive path from complete beginner to advanced data scientist. Remember that learning data science is a marathon, not a sprint. The key is consistent practice, building real projects, and staying engaged with the community.

Your next steps:

  1. Bookmark this roadmap
  2. Set up your development environment
  3. Start with Phase 1: Mathematical Foundations
  4. Join at least one data science community
  5. Create your GitHub account and start documenting your journey

Good luck on your data science journey! Remember, every expert was once a beginner. With dedication, practice, and the right resources, you’ll develop the skills needed to become a successful data scientist.

Last Updated: August 2025 Created by: Akshit Suthar Based on: Comprehensive research of current data science learning resources and industry requirements