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Kaggle Kernel (and Award!): Stack Overflow survey data analysis

So I joined Kaggle about a month ago - it’s a site that hosts data science competitions, both exploratory data analysis and machine learning, sometimes for prizes and sometimes for fun. It’s a great resource for finding clean practice datasets and for learning/sharing data science skills with others.

I decided to get my feet wet by entering a competition to analyze survey data from Stack Overflow, an online community for computer programmers. I wrote my “kernel” (that’s what they call a script on Kaggle) in R Markdown, and I focused on a relatively narrow aspect of the 80+ question survey: How are age, gender, and sexual orientation related to feeling included in the Stack Overflow community and to responses to ethical choice questions? You can read my Kernel here.

To my surprise, Kaggle chose my analysis for the weekly Kernel Awards prize of $1000 on June 15th! I’m not sure how much of that was due to my analysis and how much was due to a preference for new users in their award selection process, but I appreciated it either way. That was definitely the best pay I’ve ever received for a day’s work, and it’s nice to get some income as I search for data science jobs. Thanks Kaggle! :)

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