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OPINION

How Much Math Do You Actually Need For Data

Science?
What are the math requirements for working in the data science domain?

Emmett Boudreau Dec 16, 2020 · 4 min read

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Introduction

T
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he Data Science domain is one which often requires a larger set of skills than
most related software-engineering domains. One of the most common questions
I am frequently asked as a Data Scientist is

“ How much math do you actually use for Data Science?”

The answer is more complex than most average people might imagine. Data Science is
a large field with many other disciplines residing beneath and within it. A great
example is a data engineer, who might occasionally need to use some linear algebra,
but is much less likely to be working with many numbers and statistical tests.
Furthermore, while ML might require a lot of knowledge of algorithms (mostly derived
of statistics) , it is unlikely that a primarily analytical Data Science job is going to
require the same level of statistical knowledge.

So how much math do you actually need for Data Science? There are three main types
of mathematics that are primarily used in Data Science. Linear Algebra is certainly a
great skill to have, firstly. Another valuable asset to any Data Scientist is statistics. The
last important thing to remember is that these mathematics need to be applied inside
of a computer. That means that you not only need to have an in-depth knowledge of
mathematics, but also the computers and how to program the mathematics on the
computer.

Linear Algebra
All software engineers should certainly become familiar with linear algebra. While
some of these requirements certainly come from the scientific and mathematical
community, linear algebra is most certainly incredibly valuable to the software
engineering community, as well. Linear algebra is a basic programming skill that will
most certainly help an aspiring scientist to learn more about mathematics and
programming in general.

So how much linear algebra should you know in order to do Data Science? One
requirement would certainly be a knowledge of matrices, basic operations with said
matrices, and a solid understanding of matrix dimensions. While it is true that often
model input will be one dimensional and be fairly simple in shape, having an
understanding of more complex arrays is certainly a valuable skill-set.

Statistics
Statistics are another incredibly valuable tool that Data Scientists should be familiar
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with and use quite frequently. As I briefly discussed earlier, there are certainly Data
Science jobs in which statistics might be used less-frequently. That being said, the
Science part of Data Science comes from the statistical testing that most Data Scientists
engage with. Of course, this is a large part of the analytical side of Data Science.
Statistical testing is an important step that can be used to prove things to be valid with
data, which is a powerful thing to consider!

Furthermore, statistics most certainly have their place in machine-learning models.

Many machine-learning models use statistical weighting to hold statistics to certain
values and scenarios to learn from. Statistics are an incredible tool because they allow
a computer to weigh and predict off of older information.

So how much statistics should you know to do Data Science? A great start would most
certainly be to get a strong foundational knowledge of statistical formulas. Any
aspiring Data Scientist should probably learn the statistical Greek alphabet, which I
have an article about here:

The Statistical Greek Alphabet In Python

Get familiar with what each Greek letter represents in statistics.
towardsdatascience.com

Having a knowledge of distributions and one/two-tailed testing. Optionally, knowledge

of basic functions and differential equations such as beta, gamma, phi, and maybe
some procedural density and cumulative functions.

Computational Mathematics
The most important thing to remember with all of this information is that the job is
called Data Scientist, not Mathematician. Something that is often understated is the
significant impact that solid programming skills will have on the job. Often as a Data
Scientist, many of the statistics and mathematical operations are already written into a
well-established package.

With that in mind, it makes sense to use dependencies quite frequently as a Data
Scientist. This is why skills in managing virtual environments and dependencies are
certainly a very valuable asset, as well. With that in mind, while you might want to
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learn more about doing more complex statistics, it is important to remember that often
you are not going to need the formulas.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the Data Science field is diverse. Most Data Scientists practice many
different skills and might even work in many different domains. While statistics and
linear algebra are valuable assets, it is important when working in this field not to put
every carrot into one basket. On the other hand, you also don’t need a lot of baskets
with only one carrot in each. Skills should be diverse, but also honed enough to really
be effective.

So with that in mind, the best advice for an aspiring Data Scientist is usually to keep
learning. New information is around every hour of every day, and sometimes the most
effective pieces of information could potentially be just around the corner!
Mathematical skills are important, but often Data Scientists refer to different
dependencies to get the job done, which has been proven to be effective.

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