B-Section Assignment Answers
Data Mining Assignment Questions and Answers
2 Marks Questions and Answers
1. What is data mining? How does it differ from traditional data analysis?
Data mining is the process of discovering patterns, relationships, and useful information
from large datasets using techniques like machine learning, statistics, and database systems.
Traditional data analysis focuses on manually analyzing data using predefined queries and
basic statistical methods, while data mining is more automated and can handle large,
complex datasets.
2. Name some key applications where data mining can be beneficial.
Market basket analysis, fraud detection, customer segmentation, healthcare diagnostics,
sentiment analysis, and forecasting.
3. What is KDD?
KDD (Knowledge Discovery in Databases) is the process of extracting useful knowledge
from data, including steps like data cleaning, integration, selection, transformation, mining,
pattern evaluation, and presentation.
4. How does active classification and clustering work in data mining?
Classification assigns data to predefined categories using supervised learning, while
clustering groups similar data into clusters without labels using unsupervised learning.
Active learning selects the most informative data points for labeling to improve accuracy
with fewer examples.
5. What is regression as a data mining technique?
Regression is a predictive technique used to model relationships between a dependent
variable and one or more independent variables, predicting continuous values like sales or
prices.
6. Discuss anomaly detection as a data mining technique.
Anomaly detection identifies data points that differ significantly from normal patterns, with
applications in fraud detection, network security, and fault detection.
5 Marks Questions and Answers
7. Discuss the components of a data mining system with a neat diagram.
Components:
1. Data Sources - Databases, data warehouses, text files, web data.
2. Database/warehouse server - Handles data retrieval.
3. Data mining engine - Performs mining tasks (classification, clustering, etc.).
4. Pattern evaluation module - Evaluates patterns.
5. User interface - Displays results.
6. Knowledge base - Guides the mining process.
8. Explain the functions of data mining.
Functions include classification, clustering, association rule mining, regression, outlier
detection, prediction, and summarization.
9. Highlight the differences between DBMS and data mining in terms of their goals and
functionalities.
DBMS:
- Goal: Efficient data management
- Functions: CRUD operations
- Input: Structured data
- Output: Records/datasets
Data Mining:
- Goal: Discover hidden patterns
- Functions: Pattern discovery, prediction
- Input: Structured/unstructured data
- Output: Insights, rules, models.
10. Briefly describe any three common data mining techniques and their applications.
1. Classification: Assigning labels to data (e.g., spam filtering).
2. Clustering: Grouping data into similar clusters (e.g., customer segmentation).
3. Association Rule Mining: Finding item relationships (e.g., market basket analysis).
11. Discuss challenges and issues in data mining.
Challenges include data quality, scalability, privacy, interpretability, handling dynamic data,
and data integration.
12. Explain the role of data mining in retail industries.
Data mining helps with customer segmentation, market basket analysis, demand
forecasting, fraud detection, and personalizing loyalty programs.
