DSCI 4520 Exam 1 Questions with Correct Answers Latest Update 2025/2026
Which statement about business intelligence workflow is CORRECT?
A. Business users and BI analysts are usually the same group of people
B. External data sources are never used in the BI analytics
C. Data in the operational database is transformed to analytical data in the data warehouse
D. Transactional data software is directly connected to data warehouse - Answers Data in the
operational database is transformed to analytical data in the data warehouse
According to the data-driven decision-making technology pyramid shown in the following figure,
which statement is FALSE?
A. The process only moves in one direction (upward) and higher layers never give feedback to
the lower layers.
B. Raw operational data in OLTP systems are transformed to OLAP in data warehouse systems.
C. At the bottom of the pyramid are transactional data management systems moderated and
operated by database analyst and admins (DBA).
D. As data moves from the bottom of the pyramid to the top it transforms into information,
knowledge, and actionable insights.. - Answers The process only moves in one direction
(upward) and higher layers never give feedback to the lower layers.
Which statement is FALSE about the data-driven decision-making approach?
A. It is based on the collected facts
B. It is loaded with assumptions and theories
C. It requires computational work
D. It is an iterative and algorithmic process - Answers It is loaded with assumptions and
theories
Which statement about the data mining process is INCORRECT?
A. Data mining is a multidisciplinary field that makes a significant use of statistics
B. Data cleaning and pre-processing is usually a trivial step in the process
C. No value presents in raw, unprocessed, and unactionable data
D. The overall objective of any data mining process is to improve the business - Answers Data
cleaning and pre-processing is usually a trivial step in the process
,What is the essential element in the machine learning algorithms that distinguish supervised
from unsupervised learning?
A. Supervised learning models require significantly larger computational resources than
unsupervised learning models
B. Unsupervised learning models require significantly larger computational resources than
supervised learning models
C. In the supervised learning models target variable is used in the model, but in the
unsupervised learning models there is no target to predict
D. Supervised learning model are better than unsupervised learning models - Answers In the
supervised learning models target variable is used in the model, but in the unsupervised learning
models there is no target to predict
"Estimating the repair time required for an aircraft based on a trouble ticket."
Performing this task in data mining requires an unsupervised learning approach.
True
False - Answers False
"Learn from the observed records to predict numerical values of unseen records."
In data mining, this is called ...
Segmentation
Clustering
Classification
Regression - Answers Regression
Data exploration includes summary statistics, univariate and bivariate analysis, basic statistical
tests (t-test, correlation), ANOVA, and outlier detection.
True
False - Answers True
Which of the following tasks is an unsupervisedlearning task?
Forecasting customers spending
, Predicting customers retention
Predicting customers loyalty
Grouping customers based on the similarity in their online behavior - Answers Grouping
customers based on the similarity in their online behavior
"Identifying segments of similar customers."
Performing this task in data mining requires a supervised learning approach.
True
False - Answers False
Which of the followings is a core idea/task in data mining?
Regression modeling
Data cleaning and pre-processing
Data visualization
All of the others - Answers All of the others
What is the first phase in the CRISP-DM approach for data mining tasks?
Data collection
Business understanding
Data understanding
Model understanding - Answers Business understanding
"Automated sorting of mail by zip code scanning."
Performing this task in data mining requires an unsupervised learning approach.
True
False - Answers True
"Predicting whether a company will go bankrupt based on comparing its financial data to those
of similar bankrupt and nonbankrupt firms."
Performing this task in data mining requires an unsupervised learning approach.
Which statement about business intelligence workflow is CORRECT?
A. Business users and BI analysts are usually the same group of people
B. External data sources are never used in the BI analytics
C. Data in the operational database is transformed to analytical data in the data warehouse
D. Transactional data software is directly connected to data warehouse - Answers Data in the
operational database is transformed to analytical data in the data warehouse
According to the data-driven decision-making technology pyramid shown in the following figure,
which statement is FALSE?
A. The process only moves in one direction (upward) and higher layers never give feedback to
the lower layers.
B. Raw operational data in OLTP systems are transformed to OLAP in data warehouse systems.
C. At the bottom of the pyramid are transactional data management systems moderated and
operated by database analyst and admins (DBA).
D. As data moves from the bottom of the pyramid to the top it transforms into information,
knowledge, and actionable insights.. - Answers The process only moves in one direction
(upward) and higher layers never give feedback to the lower layers.
Which statement is FALSE about the data-driven decision-making approach?
A. It is based on the collected facts
B. It is loaded with assumptions and theories
C. It requires computational work
D. It is an iterative and algorithmic process - Answers It is loaded with assumptions and
theories
Which statement about the data mining process is INCORRECT?
A. Data mining is a multidisciplinary field that makes a significant use of statistics
B. Data cleaning and pre-processing is usually a trivial step in the process
C. No value presents in raw, unprocessed, and unactionable data
D. The overall objective of any data mining process is to improve the business - Answers Data
cleaning and pre-processing is usually a trivial step in the process
,What is the essential element in the machine learning algorithms that distinguish supervised
from unsupervised learning?
A. Supervised learning models require significantly larger computational resources than
unsupervised learning models
B. Unsupervised learning models require significantly larger computational resources than
supervised learning models
C. In the supervised learning models target variable is used in the model, but in the
unsupervised learning models there is no target to predict
D. Supervised learning model are better than unsupervised learning models - Answers In the
supervised learning models target variable is used in the model, but in the unsupervised learning
models there is no target to predict
"Estimating the repair time required for an aircraft based on a trouble ticket."
Performing this task in data mining requires an unsupervised learning approach.
True
False - Answers False
"Learn from the observed records to predict numerical values of unseen records."
In data mining, this is called ...
Segmentation
Clustering
Classification
Regression - Answers Regression
Data exploration includes summary statistics, univariate and bivariate analysis, basic statistical
tests (t-test, correlation), ANOVA, and outlier detection.
True
False - Answers True
Which of the following tasks is an unsupervisedlearning task?
Forecasting customers spending
, Predicting customers retention
Predicting customers loyalty
Grouping customers based on the similarity in their online behavior - Answers Grouping
customers based on the similarity in their online behavior
"Identifying segments of similar customers."
Performing this task in data mining requires a supervised learning approach.
True
False - Answers False
Which of the followings is a core idea/task in data mining?
Regression modeling
Data cleaning and pre-processing
Data visualization
All of the others - Answers All of the others
What is the first phase in the CRISP-DM approach for data mining tasks?
Data collection
Business understanding
Data understanding
Model understanding - Answers Business understanding
"Automated sorting of mail by zip code scanning."
Performing this task in data mining requires an unsupervised learning approach.
True
False - Answers True
"Predicting whether a company will go bankrupt based on comparing its financial data to those
of similar bankrupt and nonbankrupt firms."
Performing this task in data mining requires an unsupervised learning approach.
