Fundamentals of Data Analysis

🧠 Why We Cover Fundamentals First

You’ll notice that we cover the fundamentals of Pandas and Matplotlib first before introducing prompting techniques.
This is to ensures that you’ll:

✔️ Build a strong foundation in data manipulation and visualization syntax
✔️ Be able to read, understand and debug AI-generated data analysis code
✔️ Gain confidence in exploring and transforming datasets
✔️ Develop self-reliance and problem-solving skills

We emphasize active learning with LLMs by:

🔹 Writing structured prompts that improve critical thinking
🔹 Teaching debugging skills to ensure you don’t get stuck
🔹 Encouraging self-exploration beyond just executing code

Important

Even if you plan to use LLMs heavily, understanding Pandas and Matplotlib will make you a better analyst—see Principle 1.

As such, we’re going to introduce you to the essential building blocks of data analysis in Python. These core libraries form the foundation for every data analysis project you’ll work on, whether it’s exploring research data, creating visualizations, or building interactive dashboards.

You’ll cover:

  • 📊 Pandas for loading, manipulating, and analyzing structured data
  • 📈 Matplotlib for creating charts and visualizations
  • 🔍 Data exploration techniques to understand your datasets
  • 🧹 Data manipulation methods for filtering, grouping, and transforming data

🚫 Complete This Section Without an LLM

To help you learn effectively, we encourage you to work through this section without using any AI assistant. Here’s why:

  • 🧠 You’ll learn the core concepts firsthand
  • ✍️ You’ll practice reading and editing data analysis code manually
  • 🧱 You’ll develop an understanding of how data flows through your analysis

This section is designed to be beginner-friendly. You’ll have access to an inline code editor, so you can try out the examples, see how they work, and even make your own changes.

Tip

Tip: Take Your Time and Experiment 🧪

Play with the code examples! Change column names, modify filters, try different chart types, and see what happens. This is how real learning happens, through curiosity and experimentation.

Let’s get started with the fundamentals!