This post will tell you about my experience of the Associate Android Developer certification exam and my journey prior to that.

What is this certification about?

• The Associate Android Developer certification from Google is one of the Developer Certifications offered by Google in collaboration with Udacity.
• As mentioned on the certification page, this exam is designed to test the skills of an entry-level Android developer.
• The test taker must build an Android app based on certain given requirements within 24 hours.

What is the format of this certification exam?

• To get this certification, you need to clear two stages:
• Stage 1: The coding exam
• Stage 2: An exit interview based on Stage 1

Exam Details

(as of 3rd September 2017; for latest details click here)

• Cost: 6500 INR or $149
• Duration: Submit the exam anytime within 24 hours.
• Number of Attempts: You get 3 attempts for paying once. If you’re unable to clear the exam after 3 attempts, you need to pay again.

Stage 1: The coding exam

• Download the starter code project after you pay for the exam.
• Open the downloaded project in your Android Studio, fix bugs, add certain functionalities and test your code as per the given requirements for your exam.‍?
• Submit your code by uploading the project within 24 hours. ⏳
• Proceed with Identity Verification by uploading your ID proof & photo.

Stage 2: The exit interview

• The exit interview is an online video call organised via zoom.us wherein a member of the certification team asks you a few questions about the exam.
• This mostly covers questions regarding your code and basics of Android.
• The interview lasts for 15 to 30 minutes and in some cases ended within 10 minutes itself.
• Once again, you’ll have to get yourself verified using the ID you had uploaded at the end of Stage 1 during this interview.

If all goes well, you’ll get your certification credentials via BadgeCert — within 45 days from the day of your exam.

If you’d like to see what the exam interface looks like, click here.

My Journey

After learning Java at the end of the 2nd year at my engineering college, I was keen on learning Android app development and hence I opted to learn from Coding Ninjas again in August 2015, like I had previously done with Java. There, the quality of teaching and assignments enhanced my interest in the field of Android.

I was a member of Google Developer Group New Delhi and in November 2015, I got an email from them informing about the scholarship program for Udacity’s Android Developer Nanodegree.

I applied immediately. Soon, I received an email from the scholarship team that I had cleared the pre-assessment round and was now through to the interview stage for the scholarship. The interview was held in December 2015 and soon after the interview, my scholarship was confirmed on 16th January 2016.

The Nanodegree experience was amazing. Udacity’s video content and code reviews were what kept me motivated. The best thing about this nanodegree from Udacity is that it’s course creators are developer advocates from Google itself. Also, the video lessons include recordings of these developer advocates talking to you, making you understand the quizzes and bringing up answers to doubts, seconds before they pop up in your head. This is great compared to other websites offering video lectures where they just show a screen recording while they type the code.

I finally managed to graduate with the Android Developer Nanodegree in January 2017.

Udacity Nanodegrees grant you certain benefits like a certificate with your nanodegree credentials, code reviews for your projects from Nanodegree alumni, resume reviews, an interview preparation course and access to Udacity forums.

You’ll only miss out on these things if you don’t pay for the Nanodegree, but if you want to learn and you only care about the great course content, it’s available for free for all Nanodegrees under the free courses section on the Udacity website.

Google I/O Extended (2016) organised by GDG New Delhi

I got to know about the Associate Android Developer certification soon after I/O Extended (2016) organized by Google Developer Group New Delhi in Okhla.

At that time, I was still pursuing my Android Developer Nanodegree and I had decided to take this certification exam after my Nanodegree.

Before I’d take the certification test, I wanted to publish a few apps on the Play Store, just to have the complete app development experience before the exam.

I had always wanted to publish a few apps on the Google Play Store. I kept waiting for the perfect idea, but it never came. I was hesitant to publish the apps I had created during my Nanodegree because I knew that they’d be used by none since they were apps which I had created while learning Android and didn’t have any good use case for the common man.

But in July 2017, I came across an app on the Play Store that had over 1 Million downloads. “So what?”, you ask. All that app did was: Display images of Mehendi (henna) designs.

That was it.

I realized that I had waited long enough and it was time that I launched something on the Play Store. Hence, I launched 3 of my apps on the Play Store within a week.

I thought that publishing apps would be a piece of cake since coding apps is the real task. I was past that already and I had my APKs ready.

But I was wrong.

Coding your apps is just the beginning. Keystores, App signatures, DebugBuild, ReleaseBuild, generating screenshots, feature graphics, app video and learning how to increase your downloads using ASO is what follows next.

I learned so much in the span of that 1 week, I wish I had done it sooner. Now, I had a portfolio of apps to show no matter how bad they were.

Prior to launching these apps, whenever someone asked me for a link to my work, I’d send them a GitHub link for the app code, a Google drive link for the screenshots of the app and its APK.

Next, they’d ask me if I had something on the Play Store.

To that I’d answer:

No, I don’t. Because I want to launch something that’d be actually used by people.

But what they’d hear was:

No,

If you develop for fun, having apps on the Play Store with few downloads doesn’t mean that you failed, or your app didn’t work, or, you aren’t good at what you do. It acts as proof that since you were passionate about something, you toiled for days to produce something and that you like to show it to the world.

If Zuckerberg would’ve decided to launch Facebook for the entire world or not launch at all, we’d still be Orkut-ing.

For all budding Android app developers, publish whatever you have, right now. Even if it is that first calculator app you created or that to-do app which still has some minor bugs. Publish now so that later, you don’t “wish that you had done it sooner”.

Now let’s get to my exam experience part:

The coding round experience

I had 48 hours to submit my exam, so this is what I had hoped for:

But I got stuck a few times and this how I felt after debugging:

I had worked on almost all aspects of Android that were required for the exam (exam content) except for testing. I had no experience with Espresso whatsoever. Before the exam, I was looking for good resources to learn Espresso when I got to know that the Android Developer Nanodegree content had been updated and it now included Espresso as well! If you’re not a Nanodegree student, you can watch the free course here.

I took the exam on 15th July 2017.

• As soon as you start your exam, you need to download the starter code.
• The exam is designed to model a real-life situation wherein “a developer was assigned to that project, but the developer left due to some reason. Now you’ve been assigned with the task of understanding their code and completing the project.” Hence, you’re provided with a starter code.
• There is a list of features that your app must have upon final submission.
• Your tasks are to: Implement new functionalities as listed in the requirements, create new screens, debug existing code, generate UI tests, and so on.
• As soon as I launched the exam, I went through all the requirements first before I started coding:
• I picked up the easy tasks first and ensured that I finished implementing one functionality before I picked up another one.

• I got stuck at implementing a custom view, but some simple Google queries helped me make it through that.

• The other thing I got stuck on was related to data persistence. I didn’t seem to remember a particular syntax. Again, StackOverflow came to my rescue.

• Yes, there were some functionalities required by the exam which I had not implemented in a long time, but going through a few online resources and then implementing them on my own was not that difficult.

I scheduled my video-call interview for 11:30 pm on 23rd July, after I had received confirmation on the 19th that I had cleared the coding exam.

• The interview was organized via zoom.us and my interview duration was about 15 minutes.
• My interviewer began the interview by asking for my ID proof for verification.
• Then I was asked to provide an overview of the tasks of my coding exam.
• This was followed by some basic questions on Android such what are the 3 ways of doing ABC and the 2 ways of performing XYZ in Android.
• After this, he asked me about the features that were the toughest to implement in my coding exam. I told him about what I felt was challenging and how I finally managed to solve it.

He told me that that would be all and that I’d be getting my certification soon if all went well. He asked me if I had any questions for him and I asked him a couple of things about the advantages of becoming a certified developer.

On 29th July, I got an email from Udacity that I had successfully cleared my interview as well and that I was now a Google Certified Associate Android Developer!

On 19th August, I finally received my Associate Android Developer badge along with a form for AAD Alumni. I added the badge to my LinkedIn profile immediately ?

Tips & FAQs:

• “I am an experienced professional and I have been developing Android apps for a couple of years now, is this certification of any use to me?”
  As a learning experience? Maybe not. But this is something that would certainly validate your skills as an Android Developer. You may also get to attend the next Google Developer Certification Summit (More details about the summit at the end of this post). Hence, I see no harm in getting certified.
• “I am an amateur in Android app development, hence I am not confident about my Android skills. Where should I prepare from?”
  Try to implement everything given in the exam syllabus on the certification website at least once before the exam. Also, incorporate a couple of those things into a single app. Then go on and create multiple apps, by increasing the number of functionalities implemented with every app you make. This will give you the confidence you need. You’ll be able to quickly access your code and refresh your knowledge if you get stuck on a particular task during your exam.
• “I am comfortable with Java and data structures, but I have no prior experience of Android app development, is this exam for me?”
  Yes, but only if Android is something that interests you. If you want to do this just for the certification, it’s of no use. If you want to begin with Android, I’d recommend Udacity’s beginner’s level free courses. After that, follow the steps in the previous answer. Don’t rush into giving the exam, try your hand at Android and keep practicing for at least 1–2 months daily.
• “Do you recommend any book?”
  No, we have plenty of online resources to learn from, hence I never opted to study Android development from a book. But if books help you learn better, ‘Head First Android Development’ by Anthony J.F. Griffiths and Thomas Asbridge is a book I’ve heard of.
• “Am I allowed to use the internet during my exam?”
  Of course, you are. Otherwise, this exam would’ve been held at a physical location with an invigilator monitoring you. Just make sure you do not copy & paste the exact code from StackOverflow or some other online resource during your exam. You’re not prohibited from using online resources during the exam. However, make sure you understand whatever you see online and then code it yourself.
• “Testing? I haven’t done that before!”
  Don’t worry, no new developer focuses on testing when they start with Android app development even though we should. Just go through Espresso UI testing on Udacity or some other resource once before the exam and you’ll be good to go.
• Third party libraries?
  Avoid using them. I didn’t use any during mine. The exam guidelines don’t explicitly allow you to use them so it’s better that you don’t. Better safe than sorry. Also, I didn’t find any functionality cumbersome enough to require 3rd party libraries. Images? setImageResource(…) would do, no need to go all Picasso on it.
• “Will I get the same project and continue from where I left off if my submission fails?”
  No, if your submission fails, you lose one attempt and you’ll get a completely new project to do for your next attempt.
• “What if I miss out on a tiny functionality? Would my attempt be counted as failed?”
  This is something that isn’t clear to me yet. During my exam, I had this doubt that what if I miss out on adding a textColor or what if I put in the wrong textSize? Certainly, that small a bug shouldn’t be counted as a failed attempt? Most probably, it won’t. The exam is graded using an automated system first, but later, manually as well. So I’m pretty sure that bugs of this magnitude would be handled by the manual grader. Still, triple check for these before you submit your exam.
• Higher level certifications?
  This certification is targeted at entry-level Android Developers. There hasn’t been any announcement for higher level Android Developer certifications from Google so far.
• “Where’s my certificate?”
  As of now, you only get the digital badge from BadgeCert and no paper certificate.
• Certification validity?
  Your certification is valid for 3 years. As mentioned in the certification code of conduct documentation received after getting certified.

Useful Resources

• For more details about the exam, watch this video from Google:

• The certification was introduced at Google I/O 2016:

• This video from DigToKnow’s is the only YouTube video available so far which tells about the certification exam experience. It certainly cleared a few of my doubts before I took the exam. I’ve covered most of this video’s content in my post but I still recommend that you watch it before you take the exam.

• I came across this GitHub repo a few days ago. It includes certain resources to help you prepare for the exam:

Amejia481/Associate-Android-Developer-Certification
_Associate-Android-Developer-Certification - All the info and materials about the certification that I've collected so…_github.com

• If you’re planning to do a thorough preparation for this certification exam, check this Associate Android Developer Fast Track course from Udacity.

Associate Android Developer Fast Track | Udacity
_Learn the skills you'll need to successfully earn Google's Associate Android Developer Certification. Ideal for…_in.udacity.com

• (Update: 16/10/2017) Latest video from Google Developers India’s YouTube channel:

I wish I had taken this exam earlier so that I could have attended the Google Developer Certification Summit held in Bangalore in April 2017:

I hope Google organizes another one of these next year as well.

If you don’t want to regret missing out on this summit and you are passionate about Android Development as well, then grab your Google certification today and join the community of Google Certified Associate Android Developers!

_Image Source: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY5Olv1_dB4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY5Olv1_dB4" rel="noopener" target="blank" title=")

If you’d like to go through the exam as it happened, have a look at my exam walkthrough post:

Google Certified Associate Android Developer: Exam Walkthrough
_When I wanted to appear for this certification exam, I had no clue what the exam interface would look like. I searched…_medium.com

UPDATE: 9th October 2017: Received my new certificate today

Google Cloud Certified : Accredible : Certificates, Badges and Blockchain Credentials.
_I have the necessary skills to leverage Google Cloud technology in a way that transforms businesses and meaningfully…_www.credential.net

UPDATE (24th July, 2018)

The certification exam is available again! The exam duration has been reduced to 8 hours and the ‘Exam Content’ section has also been updated.

UPDATE (28th May, 2018)

The Associate Android Developer Certification exam is no longer available. Most probably, the certification team may be coming up with a revised certification exam, that would have multiple levels and probably support for Kotlin as well.

Right now, you’ll be redirected to this form when you click ‘Sign Up’ on the certification page.

When I wanted to appear for this certification exam, I had no clue what the exam interface would look like. I searched for the same but I found no results. It was then that I decided that I would take screenshots of my exam and create a blog post which would in some way make future test takers less nervous after they go through it.

Hence, this post will walk you through the actual exam interface. If you’d like to know about my overall experience of the exam or you’ve no clue about what this certification is, read my certification exam experience, tips & FAQs post here. Here’s a link to the official Google certification page.

Before we proceed, I must clarify that this post does not contain any specifics about the exam, which in any way would make it easier to crack the exam. I’m not allowed to share any specifics (hence the edited pictures below) so please do not ask for the same in the comments section or via any other medium since this would be against the Certification Code of Ethics.

The Exam Walkthrough: As it happened

#1: Pay for the exam here. At the time when I took the exam (15th July 2017), the fee was 6500 INR (or $149). Please make sure you’re logged in with the correct Google account — the Google account to which you want your certification linked to.

After your payment is successful, you’ll see this screen:

It is not necessary to start the exam at that very moment. Your payment was successful, you can now opt to take the exam whenever you feel like.

#2: As soon as you click the ‘Start Exam’ button, you’ll have exactly 24 hours to submit your exam (The time limit used to be 48 hours when I took the exam as you can see in the image above). This is what the exam screen looks like:

NOTE: Images have been edited to hide exam-specific data.

You can see the deadline of your submission at the top. I am a night owl so I started my exam at 2:09am on 15th July and hence my submission was due at 2:09 on the 17th of July.

#3: After you are done with the coding part in your Android Studio, click on the 'Proceed to Submission’ button on the top right.

Note that uploading your Android Studio project must happen within the 24 hours time:

#4: Next, after you choose your project file (.zip) for upload and hit 'Submit’, your file is processed. Don’t forget to agree to agree to the honor code by checking the box.

Wait for the processing to complete until you get to this screen:

Identity Verification after Exam Submission

Congratulations! You’ve submitted your exam successfully. Now you must get your identity verified. The documents that you upload during this process would be used to verify your identity again during your exit interview.

You also receive an email after your submission, informing you about the same:

You can complete the identity verification later but I opted to get done with it right after my exam submission and I recommend you to do the same.

#5: So to get started with your identity verification, click on ‘Start Identity Verification’ and then you’ll see this screen:

#6: If you would have completed the registration process successfully, you would’ve seen the above message which says ‘Identity verification pending. We will email you when the results are available.’

After a while, you’ll get an email stating that your identity verification was complete:

Now all you can do is sit back and (try to) relax until you get your exam result.

On 19th of July 2017 — within 3 days of my exam submission, I got the following mail:

After clearing the coding exam, I was asked to select an exit interview date.

I had cleared the coding exam (yay!) and was now asked to select a date for my exit interview. I clicked on the link in the image above:

There are many dates available for the exit interview. I had dates ranging from a couple of days after I received the above email to a few months in the future.

There are numerous dates available for your exit interview.

I’m not sure if you can select the time for the interview, you can only select the date. As soon as you select a date, you get an email about the details of the interview — date, time, interviewer name and video call link for the interview. In the mail, you have the option to reschedule your interview or cancel it as well.

My interview was 15 minutes long and usually lasts that long or up to a maximum of 30 minutes. At the end of the interview, I was informed that I would receive my badge soon if they felt that all was well. If you want to know the details of the interview, read my other post here.

My interview took place on the 23rd of July and 5 days later, I got ‘the’ email.

I was now a Google Certified Associate Android Developer! ?

I was happy, but I had still not received my certification badge (Update: new certificate) yet. Then, 23 looooong days later, I received that as well.

A few days later I received another email which had a feedback form and a PDF stating the benefits of becoming a Google certified Associate Android Developer as well as my responsibilities as one. This email was also a confirmation of my enrollment into the Google Developer Certification Alumni program.

I hope this post helped you become less nervous if you’re planning on taking this certification exam sometime soon. If you’re one of those people who has already been certified, I hope it brought back fond memories of your experience.

UPDATE: 9th October 2017

Just received this email from the certification team:

• A confirmed seat at Google Developer Days India #GDDIndia
• Access to Google Developers Certification lounge at the GDD = Awesome networking opportunity!
• A special reception for the certified developers before GDD.

Getting certified from Google does have its own benefits ?

UPDATE: 9th October 2017
Received my new certificate today

Google Cloud Certified : Accredible : Certificates, Badges and Blockchain Credentials.
_I have the necessary skills to leverage Google Cloud technology in a way that transforms businesses and meaningfully…_www.credential.net

If you’d like to know about my journey to becoming an Associate Android Developer, tips for the exam and FAQs, click here.

Udacity’s Data Analyst Nanodegree program was one of the first online data science programs in the online education revolution. It aims to “ensure you master the exact skills necessary to build a career in data science.” Does it accomplish its goal? Is it the best option available?

I completed the program in Fall 2016. Using inspiration from Class Central’s open-source review template, here is my review for Udacity’s Data Analyst Nanodegree program.

UPDATE: The Data Analyst Nanodegree program was refreshed with new content and student services in September 2017. Details here. I was also brought on board to help recreate some of this new content. The majority of this review is unchanged. Factual updates are indicated by italic font.

Background information

What made me decide to take this program?

In early 2016, I started creating my own data science master’s program using online resources. (You can read about that here.) I enrolled in the Data Analyst Nanodegree program for a few reasons:

• I wanted a guide for my introduction to data science.
• I wanted a cohesive program instead of individual courses from a variety of providers.
• It received stellar reviews.
• I had taken a few Udacity courses before and I was a fan of their teaching style.

What were my goals?

Though the program can act as a bridge to a job (more on that later), I wanted to use the program as an introduction to more advanced material. This “more advanced material” applies to both subjects that are covered in the program and subjects that aren’t.

What is a Udacity Nanodegree program?

Udacity is one of the leading online education providers. Sebastian Thrun, ex-Stanford professor and Google X founder, founded the company and focuses on innovation at Udacity as president and chairman. Vish Makhijani is CEO.

Nanodegree programs are online credentials provided by Udacity. They are compilations of Udacity courses (some available for free, others not) that have projects attached to them, which are reviewed by Udacity’s paid project reviewers. They also come with a bunch of student services.

Slack is used as a community tool, where Udacity students can interact with other students as well as their program’s instructors and other Udacity staff. In most programs, students have assigned mentors and communicate with them through a private chat channel that is always available in the Udacity classroom.

“Why Take The Data Analyst Nanodegree Program?”

The Data Analyst Nanodegree program was originally released in 2014. It was Udacity’s second Nanodegree program. Though it has undergone some changes over the years, the core of the program is intact.

Who are the instructors and what are their backgrounds?

Because the Data Analyst Nanodegree program is a compilation of Udacity courses (again, some free, others not), there are several instructors. Their resumes often include prestigious roles in major tech companies and degrees from top U.S. schools.

They aren’t “instructors” per se, but Udacity’s project reviewers, mentors, and student experience staff (who monitor Slack along with instructors) are among the people you interact with the most. They are so, so helpful. More on that later.

Cost

The program is split into two terms. The first term costs $499 USD. The second term costs $699 USD. If you have a strong grasp on the skills taught in the first term, you can skip it, complete the second term only, and still obtain the credential.

Recommended prerequisites

For Term 1, Udacity recommends that students are familiar with descriptive statistics and have some experience working with data in spreadsheets or SQL.

For Term 2, students should have experience analyzing data using Python, as well as a solid understanding of inferential statistics and its applications.

My background / skills entering the program

I started the program in May 2016 when I had a few months of programming experience, mostly in C and Python. The vast majority of this experience was from the bridging module for my data science master’s program, where I took Harvard’s CS50: Introduction to Computer Science and Udacity’s Intro to Programming Nanodegree program.

I had also finished my undergraduate chemical engineering program and had 24 months of quant-related job experience. This meant I had taken several statistics courses and was comfortable with data.

Udacity promo material

The Program

Structure

The Data Analyst Nanodegree program is split up into two terms. Each term has three courses and four projects (the extra project being an intro project that helps you get used to the Udacity learning environment). Mat Leonard, the program’s curriculum lead at the time of the refresh, is present throughout the program as he introduces each course, its purpose in the program, and its instructor(s).

Course content is made up of a combination of videos, text, and quizzes. Videos tend to range from 30 seconds to five minutes, as per Udacity’s style. Automatically graded quizzes often follow these short videos. These quizzes are usually multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, or small programming tasks. After acquiring CloudLabs, these programming tasks are now carried out in Jupyter Notebook and SQL coding environments in the Udacity classroom.

Again, each section has a graded project. These projects and the feedback from Udacity’s paid project reviewers are where a lot of the value lies for students.

Syllabus

My edition of the program had seven parts:

• P1: Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
• P2: Intro to Data Analysis (with NumPy and pandas)
• P3: Data Wrangling with MongoDB (or SQL)
• P4: Exploratory Data Analysis (with R)
• P5: Intro to Machine Learning
• P6: Data Visualization with D3.js
• P7: Design an A/B Test

The new program’s first term is called Data Analysis with Python and SQL. The courses and projects include:

• Intro project: Explore Weather Trends. SQL and spreadsheets (or Python/R if you are already familiar) are used to analyze and visualize temperature data.
• Course: Introduction to Python. Project: Explore US Bikeshare Data.
• Course: Introduction to Data Analysis, which includes The Data Analysis Process and SQL for Data Analysis. Project: Investigate a Dataset.
• Course: Practical Statistics. Project: Analyze A/B Test Results.

The second term is called Advanced Data Analysis. The courses and projects include:

• Intro project: Test a Perceptual Phenomenon. Compute descriptive statistics and perform a statistical test on a dataset based on a psychological phenomenon called the Stroop Effect.
• Course: Data Wrangling (with Python). Project: Wrangle and Analyze Data. This is the course and project that I created. ?
• Course: Exploratory Data Analysis (with R). Project: Explore and Summarize Data.
• Course: Data Storytelling (with Tableau). Project: Create a Tableau Story.

The big changes, with full details described in this blog post:

• Python is now taught in the program.
• Machine Learning and A/B Testing are now included as optional material and are no longer requirements to graduate from the program. Reasoning: “The focus of this program is to prepare you for data analyst jobs. Our research shows that machine learning is not a requirement for the vast majority of data analyst positions.” The basics of A/B testing are now covered in the new practical stats course, giving students the exposure that they’ll need on the job.
• New courses and projects. Specifically, Intro to Data Analysis (which includes Python for Data Analysis and SQL for Data Analysis), Practical Statistics (taught by Sebastian Thrun), and Data Wrangling.

Term 1 and Term 2 of the Udacity Data Analyst Nanodegree program

Grading

Projects are graded on a pass/fail (officially, “meets specifications” and “requires changes”) basis according to a unique rubric. Your project must satisfy all sections of the rubric. If all of your projects meet specifications, you graduate. This means that the automatically-graded quizzes do not count towards your grade.

If a project submission requires changes, your project reviewer will give you actionable feedback. After you implement these changes, you can resubmit. There is no submission limit.

My experience

Timeline

Udacity’s estimated timeline for the Data Analyst Nanodegree program was 378 hours when I started, which meant students took 6–7 months on average to complete it. According to Toggl (a time tracking app), the whole program took me 369 hours over five months. This timeline included dedicating serious time to making my projects portfolio-quality, as opposed to producing the minimum to satisfy the pass/fail rubric.

The program was condensed in the Fall 2017 refresh. The new estimated timeline is 260 hours. Each term is paced at 10 hours per week over 13 weeks, though students are given 19 weeks to complete each term.

How was the course content?

For my edition of the program, the course content from P1 (Statistics), P2 (Intro to Data Analysis), P4 (Exploratory Data Analysis), P5 (Machine Learning), and P7 (A/B Testing) get five stars out of five from me. P3 (Data Wrangling) and P6 get three-and-a-half stars.

The exploratory data analysis content with Facebook employees (P4) was so illuminating. The intro to machine learning course with Sebastian Thrun and Katie Malone (P5) was the most fun I’ve had in any online course. The A/B testing content with Google employees (P7) is so unique. I’d give those three courses six stars if I could.

The SQL and Data Wrangling content (P3) weren’t amazing. Same with the data visualization content (P6), though that probably was because D3.js is super difficult to teach to JavaScript newbies. These opinions aren’t uncommon, according to the Class Central’s reviews for those courses. Check them out here and here.

This “not amazing” content from the old program was removed in the Fall 2017 refresh. Revamped content for intro to data analysis, SQL, statistics, data wrangling, and data visualization is now included. The Practical Statistics content focuses on inferential statistics, with descriptive statistics being a prerequisite and taught in the Data Foundations Nanodegree program. The data visualization course is now taught with Tableau instead of D3.js.

How were the projects?

Again, projects are where Udacity sets themselves apart from the rest of the online education platforms. They invest in their project review process and it pays off. The Data Analyst Nanodegree program was no exception.

All of the projects reinforce the content you learned in the videos. The project reviewers know their stuff. They tell you where you succeeded and where your mistakes and/or omissions are. Supervised learning by doing. It works.

The forums and the forum mentors are especially helpful when you get stuck. Search the forums to see if your problem is a common one (they usually are). No luck? Post a new question yourself. There is one forum mentor, Myles Callan, who seems to know everything about everything and responds within hours. I have my doubts that he sleeps.

Though forums still exist and work, Slack and classroom mentors are now the recommended support avenues. Students can post questions, and answers are provided with the same or greater level of immediacy (within hours and often sooner). The Slack community is overseen by Udacity instructors as well as their student experience staff, who ensure that student questions, comments, etc. are addressed in a timely fashion. The famed Myles Callan is now a mentor.

If you’re curious to see what these projects look like, check out this Github repository.

How hard was it?

The statistics content was easy for me because I had taken several stats courses in undergrad. This would probably be true for every topic in the Nanodegree program if you had prior experience in it.

I’d categorize most of the program as intermediate difficulty. Lecture content that doesn’t have many quizzes (they often do, though) can be a breeze, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The projects exercise your brain. Each will probably take you more than twenty hours if you want to be thorough.

The Exploratory Data Analysis project was the most challenging to pass. It took me 3.5 submissions. Check out this Twitter thread for more details.

Can you apply for jobs immediately post-graduation?

You can. The program should equip you with the required skills for an entry-level data analyst role if you take it seriously. Eli Kastelein is a perfect example of that. You can read more about his story below.

How to Build a Career in Tech Without a CS Degree
_In the spring of 2014, I was a fresh college dropout on a Greyhound bus headed nowhere in particular._medium.com

You can also continue onto more advanced courses, both for the subjects covered in the program and for other subjects. This is what I chose to do.

Final thoughts

Would I take the program again knowing what I know now?

Somewhere towards the end of the program, I started creating Class Central’s Data Science Career Guide. This entailed researching every single online course offered for every subject within data science.

Though I enjoyed the majority of courses within the Nanodegree program (update: new courses have replaced the courses I didn’t enjoy), there are courses from other providers that receive better reviews for certain subjects. Statistics, for example. If I had access to my guide back when I started, I would consider the separate-course-for-each-subject route. Udacity’s student services and project review process, however, are so effective for learning that I would take the Data Analyst Nanodegree program regardless.

If you’re the kind of person who wants a 100% custom online education experience but wants to take advantage of Udacity’s projects and services, researching your favorite courses for each subject (I recommend using Class Central) then enrolling in the Nanodegree program to complete the projects is something to consider.

The alternatives

These are the five alternative programs that I was considering when I enrolled in the Data Analyst Nanodegree program:

• Johns Hopkins University’s Data Science Specialization on Coursera
• Microsoft’s Professional Program Certificate in Data Science on edX
• Wesleyan University’s Data Analysis and Interpretation Specialization on Coursera
• DataCamp’s Python and R tracks
• Dataquest’s Data Analyst and Data Scientist paths

Note: I have removed my comments on these programs due to Udacity policy regarding commenting on other providers.

Conclusion

Udacity’s Data Analyst Nanodegree program gives you the foundational skills you need for a career in data science. Post-graduation, you’ll be able to target your strengths and weaknesses, and supplement your learning where necessary. Plus, you’ll leave with a handful of portfolio-ready projects.

I loved it, as did others.

★★★★¾