2026 COMPREHENSIVE EXAM
◉ What is a PivotTable in data analysis? Answer: A tool for
summarizing and reorganizing data using crosstabulations without
altering the original dataset.
◉ What are categorical data types? Answer: Data represented by
words, where differences between values are not meaningful.
◉ What is nominal data? Answer: Categorical data that cannot be
ranked, such as eye color.
◉ What is ordinal data? Answer: Categorical data that allows for
ranking, such as survey responses.
◉ What characterizes numerical data? Answer: It involves
meaningful numbers with significant differences between values.
◉ What is interval data? Answer: Numerical data with equal
intervals between observations, where zero does not indicate
absence.
,◉ What is ratio data? Answer: Numerical data with a definitive ratio
and absolute zero, indicating absence of something.
◉ Why is Asset ID considered categorical data? Answer: Because the
numbers assigned do not have meaningful differences; they are
identifiers.
◉ What is a data dictionary? Answer: A document that defines data
types, sizes, and field names for each element in a dataset.
◉ What are the two subtypes of categorical data? Answer: Ordinal
and nominal.
◉ Which category of numerical data translates zero as 'absence of'
something? Answer: Ratio data.
◉ What type of data is financial statement data generally
considered? Answer: Structured data.
◉ What does the term 'dummy variable' refer to in data analysis?
Answer: A variable that indicates presence (1) or absence (0) of a
characteristic.
, ◉ What is the primary tool used for data analysis and creating pivot
tables? Answer: Microsoft Excel
◉ Which tool is best for data visualization but does not allow
original data entry? Answer: Tableau Desktop
◉ What is the purpose of relational databases? Answer: To break
data into separate tables for easier navigation and organization.
◉ What are the three essential components of relational databases?
Answer: Tables, fields, and records.
◉ What is a primary key in a relational database? Answer: A unique
identifier that differentiates each record in a table.
◉ What is a foreign key? Answer: A primary key used in another
table to create relationships between tables.
◉ What do entity relationship diagrams (ERDs) depict? Answer: The
relationships between two tables.
◉ What is data integrity? Answer: The accuracy and truthfulness of
data.