About this course
Data Science Foundations is a free, self-paced course built for people who want to learn data science properly — not just copy-paste code, but actually understand what is happening and why.
Why we built this
Most data science courses fall into one of two traps: they are either too theoretical (endless formulas with no connection to real problems) or too shallow (a quick tour of libraries with no understanding of the statistics underneath). Neither prepares you to do actual data science work.
We built Data Science Foundations to fill that gap — a structured course that explains the fundamentals clearly, connects theory to practice, and gives you interactive tools to see concepts in action rather than just read about them.
What you will learn
The course covers six modules in a deliberate order: statistics first, then Python, then modelling, exploratory analysis, SQL, and data wrangling. Each module builds on the last. By the end you will have a solid, connected understanding of the full data science workflow.
- Module 1 — Statistics Foundations: Distributions, sampling, hypothesis testing, regression, correlation, A/B testing
- Module 2 — Python for Data Science: NumPy, Pandas, data cleaning, manipulation, scikit-learn pipelines
- Module 3 — Statistical Modelling: Linear and logistic regression, overfitting, regularisation, ensemble methods
- Module 4 — Exploratory Data Analysis: EDA workflow, outliers, distributions, correlation analysis, storytelling
- Module 5 — SQL & Data Modelling: SQL queries, window functions, star schema, slowly changing dimensions
- Module 6 — Data Wrangling & ETL: Data quality, missing data, feature transformation, ETL pipelines
How it works
Every lesson combines written explanation with interactive diagrams built specifically for the concept being taught. Rather than static images, you can explore distributions, adjust parameters, and see how formulas behave with real data. Quizzes at the end of each lesson test understanding, not memorisation.
No account is needed to start. Sign in with Google if you want to save your progress across devices.
Who is behind this
Data Science Foundations is built and maintained by Elixytics, a small team passionate about making technical education clearer and more accessible. We have backgrounds in data science, statistics, and software engineering, and we built the course we wished existed when we were learning.
We believe good education should be free and openly available. Every lesson, every diagram, and every quiz on this site is free to access without payment.
Get in touch
Found a mistake? Have a suggestion for a new lesson? We genuinely want to hear from you. The course improves because learners tell us what is unclear or missing.