What is the difference between data profiling and data mining?
Fintech data analysts work with and manipulate data in many different ways. The interviewer wants to make sure that you know the difference between data profiling - which involves assessing any flaws in your data - and data mining - which refers to looking for patterns and trends within cleansed data. If possible, give examples of times when you've profiled or mined data.
"To me, I associate data profiling with cleansing the data. It is the step that I take before I clean my data. In other words, first I search for any consistency or logic errors in my data (that is, profile the data), and then I remove those flaws (that is, cleanse my data). Data mining, on the other hand, is something that comes toward the end of the process, whereby I look at the data in search of anomalies, patterns, and correlations that allow me to draw useful conclusions I can then share with my manager."