This update was posted on June 8, 2015. Due to the large demand, we have simplified our process. You can now pick up a project from our data science project list, get the associated data (available for free from the project description), work on it, and submit a solution to [email protected] when done. Priority in reviewing submissions will be given to applicants meeting the requirements: 4-year college degree and two years of business experience in a quantitative field. After submission, expect to receive questions from us. Your completed project and answers, after revision, will be featured on our network. 

We want to emphasize the fact that our apprenticeship is a good option only for self-learners. It is free, online and on on-demand, but it comes with very limited support, though you can get support from other participants. If you prefer a learning environment with teachers who guide you, and interact with you on a regular basis, check out our list of data science programs. Disclaimer: the programs featured at the top are Data Science Central sponsors, but we carefully select our sponsors, and they really deliver great value.

Having said that, we offer the self-learner everything she needs to become a data scientist:

• Basic data science cheat sheet if you start from scratch
• Advanced data science cheat sheet
• Our first data science book
• Our second data science book
• Project list (includes data sets)
• Free data sets
• More free data sets
• List of resources including about data science techniques
• Machine learning, R, Python and other resources
• Projects completed by successful candidates
• Job interview questions

You should also read 4 steps to becoming a data scientist, suggesting unusual but potentially lucrative career paths. Finally, we highly recommend that you read the articles listed in the Additional Reading section below.

DSC Resources

• Career: Training | Books | Cheat Sheet | Apprenticeship | Certification | Salary Surveys | Jobs
• Knowledge: Pure Data Science | Competitions and Challenges | Webinars | Our Book
• Buzz: Business News | Announcements | Events | RSS Feeds
• Misc: Top Links | Code Snippets | External Resources | Best Blogs | Subscribe | For Bloggers

Additional Reading

• 4 easy steps to becoming a data scientist
• 13 New Trends in Big Data and Data Science
• 22 tips for better data science
• Data Science Compared to 16 Analytic Disciplines
• How to detect spurious correlations, and how to find the real ones
• 17 short tutorials all data scientists should read (and practice)
• 10 types of data scientists
• 66 job interview questions for data scientists
• High versus low-level data science

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