How to Ace the Data Science Bootcamp: A Complete Guide
A full guide on how to prepare for a bootcamp, successfully complete the course, and act afterward
I’ve graduated from offline bootcamp in May 2021. Now I have been working in IT for almost 2 years. Moreover, I am still invited to participate in different events and activities of the bootcamp as a guest graduate. I am going to guide you, on how to perform well at every stage — from choosing a great program up to communication after graduation.
This information applies to a full-time bootcamp program with live lectures/webinars, not MOOCS (massive open online courses).
Before the bootcamp starts
Do your research
Bootcamp is a serious step for your future career (and even life). That’s why I recommend finding out as much information as possible. Reading the bootcamp website and scrolling through social networks isn’t enough. I highly recommend attending all the free events and being active there. Feel free to ask questions to the staff at webinars. I also recommend reaching out to alumni and students and asking them anything. Try to visit an offline campus if possible and check out the learning environment for yourself. This will help you get a complete picture in your head.
I took action once I’d read everything I could on the internet about the program I was interested in. I left a comment on their Instagram: “I’m planning to apply for the bootcamp. Graduates and students, please like the comment and I’ll write to you”. Several people replied and I asked everything I wanted.
I also participated in a free Python marathon. Participants were given a task every day and had to submit a solution the same day. During the event, I was active in a chat and stayed consistent. Everything worked out and I won the event. It gave me a chance to visit the bootcamp office offline and check out the atmosphere. I also attended an online presentation of the Data Science program.
Thanks to these actions, I learned everything I wanted to know about the bootcamp.
Record all your observations
It’s hard to remember everything, so I highly recommend taking notes. Especially if you are considering several schools. These notes will be very useful for future comparisons and for making a final decision.
In the city where I live, only one place offered a full-time bootcamp, but journaling helped me keep track of everything. And I’d done everything right, choosing a great program with supportive mentors, a strong course syllabus, great career support, and great people around me.
Choose a program with an entrance exam
Sounds unexpected, doesn’t it? The entrance exam isn’t designed to torture you. The main reason for this is to check that each student has the necessary foundation to understand a fast-paced and complicated program. The bootcamp is also a way of checking that students are motivated and aren’t toxic. Bootcamps are not only a place to gain some skills, but they also build a community of people.
Passing the exam means that you are ready to start an intensive bootcamp
When I joined the bootcamp, I also had an exam. The introductory part was about my motivation and who I am, the second part was about Python basics, and at the end, I had to solve 2 exercises (my very first live coding experience 🤣). The first coding task was easy (“find the largest word in the string” or something like that), while the second was hard.
This was done on purpose. The examiners were testing our ability to cope with difficult situations, our ability to think, and to break down the problem. It took me 45 minutes to do it.
Make a habit to study and consume information
In Bootcamp, you will receive a lot of information every day. Start reading new articles, and write simple snippets of code every day. Start with 15–30 minutes a day. It will be much easier for you to jump into full-time study. You will get used to studying and self-improvement.
This will also help you prepare for the exam properly. It’s much better than consuming a huge amount of information for a month.
Go to the bootcamp when you gain some basic knowledge
I think this is one of the most important pieces of advice here.
Bootcamp isn’t a silver bullet or a magic place that you go to and magically become a super strong specialist. In my opinion, bootcamp works more efficiently as a booster, rather than a first meeting in data science.
I strongly believe that it is a good idea to get some basics because the bootcamp will make your knowledge even better and deeper. You will have something you know, and you will deepen and broaden it.
You don’t have to master everything — some basic facts and understanding are enough to start a bootcamp x5 stronger.
Based on my observations, students who came to Bootcamp with some knowledge improved more than someone who came right after the exam. And it was easier for them to pass a technical interview.
Another surprising effect (for me😅): Some things I don’t understand the first time, I understand the second time. And more than that, it helped me unravel what was completely confusing and stuck in my head.
Suddenly I was more prepared than I expected. I’ve been interested in data science since the lockdown in early 2020, and I took a course on Coursera. After that, I read a lot about data and watched a lot of YouTube videos. As a result, I learned something about classical ML.
Still, I was confused and mixed up regularisation and regression in my head. And I thought I was too stupid to understand how neural networks work. I decided to do a bootcamp “to be interview-ready for a measurable period”.
Of course, classical ML was part of the bootcamp course and I sorted out a lot of things. While my group mates were trying to fit their first linear regression, I was interested in creating new polynomial functions and trying to find more complex dependencies. To learn more about things I was already familiar with. And yes, some basics in classical ML helped me to understand neural networks better.
Here is my list of topics I recommend to be familiar with (if you want to make your life easier and more efficient during the bootcamp). It’s better to practice than read about:
- Bash (basic commands). Improves the speed of your work
- Git (you have to practice it, in theory, it may seem confusing). I tried git for the first time in a bootcamp and was shocked with all the push/pull/merge etc.
- Python beyond basic data structure exercise. I advise you to get into OS module, working with files, JSON, daytime module, and itertools. OOP basics are also useful.
- Popular Python libraries for data science: pandas, NumPy, sklearn. Their basics and how to use them.
- Beginner-friendly material on machine learning and neural networks.
- …and anything about data you are interested in.
Plan your finances and daily life
This is the boring part, but it’s vital. While you are studying at a bootcamp, all your thoughts will be on studying. I’ve had a dream about code. You won’t have much time to think about everyday life. Here is a list of questions you need to answer before you start a full-time program
- Where will I live during the program and while looking for a job?
- How will I pay for a bootcamp course? Which option suits me best?
- How will I pay for accommodation?
- How much money will I need to eat healthy and delicious food? Where will I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
- How will my study affect others? (For example, who will walk my dog?)
- Do I have enough savings for a period of job searching?
Planning works. One of my group mates was a woman with 2 children. Because of her amazing planning skills, she was successful in her studies and everything was fine in her household.
As for me, I realized that a good eating and sleeping schedule can help you to gain knowledge. It doesn’t mean that you have to follow a strict diet, it just means that you have the necessary amount of fats, proteins, and healthy carbohydrates and don’t abuse alcohol and energy drinks.
I also slept at least 8 hours a night. If I slept less than that, I was unable to concentrate in the morning and felt stupid during the day. Much has been written about the importance of a good night’s sleep.
During bootcamp
You have prepared well and started your Bootcamp journey. Here are some tips to help you through the learning process
Take notes reasonably
I’ve seen two types of notes: “I’ll copy every word from the presentation” and “I’ll remember, no need to write”. Both approaches are wrong. In the first case — mentors will share slides and notes, in the second — you won’t remember what you forgot.
I had two types of notes: the first one I wrote with my hands during lectures, and the other one — I typed something useful, related to practice, on my computer.
The first type: I wrote down my own understanding of the key ideas. It wasn’t a clear rewrite of a slide, I wrote in my own words how I understood a particular idea. I also wrote important references and where I could read/watch more about the topic. And I always left a small window for questions.
On my computer, I divided my practical notes into groups (for example: bash commands, git, sklearn tricks, etc.) and filled them in as soon as I discovered something interesting or important. I also made a “miscellaneous” section where I would write random notes.
This kind of journaling saved my life when preparing for interviews.
Try to understand, not copy/paste
This advice will help you not only in bootcamp but throughout your career.
Usually, you’ll have a Jupyter notebook or a .py script with examples on a given topic. There is a strong temptation to copy the code, tweak it a bit, and make it work. But this is an inefficient approach.
I’m a firm believer in first understanding what goes on inside the code, how it works, and then implementing it yourself. At least you’ll understand how a specific piece of code works and you’ll be able to implement it in the future. Cheating isn’t a good idea, you’re just cheating yourself.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions
I spent the first two weeks of the bootcamp learning to ask questions. And our mentors told us that there is no such thing as a dumb question, and the dumbest question in the world — is an unasked question.
In my case, the bootcamp created a great environment for learning and development, and I started to melt and communicate with them.
During the practice, I made a formula, for how to ask questions correctly
When it is a theory:
- You explained “this”, but I don’t understand “that”. Could you give more examples/why it works like that?
If it is a coding error/practical questions
- Tried to solve it as best I could
- Google it and try again
- Wrote a problem, listed all my approaches as bullets, explained why it didn’t work, and gave another idea. And with all this information came the questions
It helped me to improve my questions from “it doesn’t work, help me” to correct, complete, and reasonable questions. I am very grateful to our mentors who were patient enough to answer all our questions. Fortunately, there was enough attention for everyone. I am very grateful to them, I have learned a lot.
Be kind to yourself
Going to a bootcamp is a brave decision. The learner goes through a fast and complicated course, writes many lines of code, and consumes an excessive amount of information every day.
So don’t blame yourself for not studying all weekend and not sitting up to 24 hours a day. The key ingredient here is balance and the ability to listen to your body. It is important to strike a balance between hard work and good rest. Without proper relaxation, it’s hard to achieve much. The aim is to support you through this complex journey.
Communicate with your groupmates
Don’t be afraid to seem weird to your group mates. You’re going through the bootcamp — it’s what brings you together. It’s a good idea — to discuss the topic of the day, data science news or just to have small talk. It helped me a lot during the bootcamp days. And you need to know that your groupmates are your networking base in the industry. Right now they are bootcamp students, but who will they be in 1, 2, 3 years?
My bootcamp colleagues have been one of the greatest blessings of my life. It was incredible luck. We started communicating a lot from the first week. We talked during coffee breaks, had lunch together, and played table games. They are the best examples of cool colleagues. And after 2 years, I still communicate with them and meet them at different events.
I never thought I’d improve my soft skills so much. Before the bootcamp, I could barely talk to the salesperson, who knew I would be a good communicator?
I also strongly believe that a friendly atmosphere is more conducive to growth than a toxic and competitive one. It isn’t a Hunger Games where only one person gets the job, so it’s more productive to work together.
I studied with great people. We supported each other in the interviews and discussed how to ask one question or another. Every offer was a celebration for the whole group. Once my group mate and I applied for the same job and were given the same tests. Instead of competing, we sat together and helped each other to complete them. Some parts were easier for me, others for my group mates. As a result, we both completed it.
Don’t be scared to participate in hackathons and other events
I am sure that every event in the industry is a chance to learn something new, meet someone in the industry, or show yourself to the IT world.
I know it might be scary to attend events during the bootcamp studies. I described the purpose of the event to myself and it became easier. For example, “I want to do a project with data from the retail industry”. In hackathons, I set a goal to improve my skills and everything was fine.
I started participating in hackathons early — in the 5th week of the bootcamp. Of course, our team was made up of people from the bootcamp. We had one advantage — we were united as a team. I went there to test my skills and learn something new. It was an offline event and I felt the whole atmosphere — several rows of tables with many teams, all-night coding, free energy drinks. I went above and beyond at that event and (unexpectedly) made a lot of progress in Pandas.
Meetups and conferences require less courage than hackathons — you just have to sign up. The organizing committee wants to see a relevant audience — and you are that. There is also a life hack: you can ask a bootcamp administration/management to invite someone to present to your audience. When I was a student, I wrote in a feedback form that it would be nice to have a presentation from someone. After 5 weeks, that person was invited and gave a presentation, especially for us.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes
It has been written a thousand times that we learn better from our mistakes. Here is my story of how I ruined a module project during my studies
It was a project day in the NLP module and I was struggling with CUDA. I wanted to compare text generation between Markov chains and neural networks. The Markov chains part was done when I couldn’t get a neural network to work. I didn’t want to do a presentation in front of my group mates and mentors. I remember saying something like “It’s a big failure, it’s useless, I didn’t want to come”. They replied that your experiences and experiments were important and it was a good idea to share them. And the audience was fascinated and listened to me with real interest.
After bootcamp
Don’t be afraid to discuss your own case during a career support session.
Bootcamps can offer career support. In my school, we learned how to write a good CV, how to present our git portfolio, how to ace different types of interviews, and much more. I found the help even more useful when I started to ask for direct feedback: the first time I came and asked for my newly prepared CV to be reviewed and asked some questions. This was useful because everyone has their own background and some of it can be presented in a CV. I got direct help that I could use during the interview.
Share your experiences within your group
Your bootcamp mentors and group mates could help you with your first job search. For example, I asked how to answer difficult questions that I couldn’t handle in the interview. I got help and a good explanation. I asked for help and checked my test papers. I also discussed an interview with HR with the career coach and shared it with others.
My groupmates also shared their stories. We discussed interviews, collected questions, and supported each other. My awareness increased dramatically. My experience + others’ experience = career wisdom.
Don’t miss activities for graduates
Different activities can be offered to graduates. For example, speaking at an open day or the opportunity to take exams from candidates. I have given masterclasses on Python basics, taken exams, and spoken at various events. You don’t have to attend every event, but it makes sense to do something on your own. It will help to ensure that you are remembered. Having that extra support and knowing that you’re not alone on your career path and that a bootcamp can help or advise you in a difficult situation.
Be grateful and share your success
Good bootcamps (I’m sure you’ll choose a good one after reading this article) wonder what happens to their graduates. So it makes sense to let them know when you find a job. Talk about the company, the salary, the responsibilities and thank the bootcamp for helping you. I’m sure they’ll be delighted.
Now you know, how to choose a good bootcamp and prepare for a course, how to study and act during the studying period, and make a good impression afterward. Bootcamp is a unique and unforgettable experience, it influenced me a lot. Good luck on your path!
