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“Cape Town is attracting thinkers, innovators and design-led entrepreneurs that are helping us build a tech ecosystem that is strong and resilient. Initiatives such as the Explore Data Science Academy are an integral part in building a community with skilled and talented young people poised to participate in the city’s inclusive digital economy.”

Patricia de Lille - Mayor of Cape Town

“In a rapidly changing business landscape, data science has become a core skill for corporates who are looking to digitalise their operations and leverage big data.”

Ian Russell – BCX Chief Executive Officer

“There is no doubt Data Science is one of the most valuable careers in our future. Every organisation tomorrow will be a data-driven organisation built off the skills and insights of their Data Science team”

Tim Bean – SAHL Insurance Managing Director

“Extracting insights from your data is critical to win today. And to do this you need Data Scientists in your business to drive these insights.”

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“Every business now needs a team of great Data Scientists to thrive. Businesses need to consume big data sets in real-time to make intelligent decisions to win in today's Digital Economy”

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Pop quiz time!


Data Science, at its core, is all about problem solving. So, have some fun solving these brain teasers!

This will give you an idea about the cool things you will learn when you join us at the Data Science Academy. This quiz is a one-hour aptitude test that tests your problem-solving abilities. It will form the basis of your application and will determine whether you will make it as part of the 2020 intake.

The quiz is best done on a desktop, with a pen and paper to help with the workings. You are welcome to stop and come back to the quiz at any time. You just need to come back to the site, press ‘Apply Now’ and enter the name and e-mail address you used to enter the quiz originally.


Some things to think about before you get started:


Awesome, let’s do this!


START
Q1:
What is 7 x 5 + 2?
Q2:
The following table shows the price of a loaf of fresh white bread for various brands in the Sandton Pick n Pay store for various months in 2018:

BrandJanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJune
Albany9.389.259.899.759.569.48
Sasko8.898.659.129.389.69.75
Blue Ribbon9.148.959.529.569.589.62

Determine which brand or brands has the largest price differential between the lowest and highest price over the 6 months.
Q3:
The following table shows the price of a loaf of fresh white bread for various brands in the Sandton Pick n Pay store for various months in 2018:

BrandJanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJune
Albany9.389.259.899.759.569.48
Sakco8.898.659.129.389.69.75
Blue Ribbon9.148.959.529.569.589.62

Determine the average price for a loaf of fresh white bread for Blue Ribbon between February and June.
Q4:
The following table shows the annual profit for five companies, the cost to purchase that company and the number of employees currently employed.

CompanyAnnual ProfitCost to Buy CompanyNumber of Employees
AR40,000R36,0005
BR52,000R50,0007
CR42,000R40,0008
DR120,000R130,00018
ER81,000R85,00013

Which company has the highest annual profit per employee?
Q5:
The following table shows the annual profit for five companies, the cost to purchase that company and the number of employees currently employed.

CompanyAnnual ProfitCost to Buy CompanyNumber of Employees
AR40,000R36,0005
BR52,000R50,0007
CR42,000R40,0008
DR120,000R130,00018
ER81,000R85,00013

If the profit per employee remained the same, how many extra employees would Company C have to employ to achieve an annual profit of R105,000?
Q6:
The following table shows results from a survey determining what sector individuals work in.

SectorMaleFemale
Engineering41,00067,000
IT121,000107,000
Legal Services398,000105,000
Health Care273,000251,000
Business Services227,000271,000
Self-Employed186,000124,000
Unemployed45,00062,000
Total1,291,000987,000

Approximately what percentage of the people sampled are unemployed?
Q7:
The following table shows results from a survey determining what sector individuals work in.

SectorMaleFemale
Engineering41,00067,000
IT121,000107,000
Legal Services398,000105,000
Health Care273,000251,000
Business Services227,000271,000
Self-Employed186,000124,000
Unemployed45,00062,000
Total1,291,000987,000

If it is predicted that the number of females employed in IT will rise by 15% every year, but the number of males stays the same, what percent of IT employees would be female after a three year period?
Q8:
How many minutes are in one week?
Q9:
Kim can walk 4 kilometers in one hour. How long does it take Kim to walk 18 kilometers?
Q10:
A large box contains 18 small boxes and each small box contains 25 chocolate bars. How many chocolate bars are in the large box?
Q11:
Jim, Carla and Tomy are members of the same family. Carla is 5 years older than Jim. Tomy is 6 years older than Carla. The sum of their three ages is 31 years. How old is each one them?
Q12:
Ben sold his used PlayStation and accessories for R352. If he received seven times as much money for the PlayStation as he did for the accessories, find how much money he received for the PlayStation.
Q13:
Cash Converters bought a Samsung TV for R1500. What price should they re-sell it for if they want to make a profit of 20%?
Q14:
Incredible Connection sells a laptop for R12,600. If the profit made on the laptop is 5%, what is the cost price of the laptop?
Q15:
The next term in the sequence 9, 12, 16, 21 is?
Q16:
James has R50 in his wallet and Checkers is selling a can of coke for R6.50. What is the maximum number of cans of coke James can buy from Checkers?
Q17:
A survey asked people how often they exceed speed limits. The data are then categorized into the following contingency table of counts showing the relationship between age group and response:

Exceed Limit if Possible ?
AgeAlwaysNot AlwaysTotal
Under 30100100200
Over 3040160200
Total140260400

Among people with age over 30, what’s the “risk” of always exceeding the speed limit?
Q18:
The cost of an entry level Yaris is R220,000 and the cost of an entry level Etios is R180,000. A Toyota dealership has R7 million to spend and wants to buy equal numbers of the entry level Yaris and Etios. What is the largest number of each type of car that can be ordered?
Q19:
Sarah thinks of a number. She squares it, takes away 5, multiplies that number by 4, takes away another 7, divides it all by 3 and then finally adds 6. Her answer is 9. What number did she start with?
Q20:
Two weeks ago, I bought two pizzas, 100MB cell phone data and 20 litres of petrol. Last week I bought one pizza, 100MB of cell phone data and 30 litres of petrol. And this week I bought two pizzas, 300MB of cell phone data and 10 litres of petrol. The price of petrol increased by 40% this week compared to the previous two weeks, but other prices stayed the same.

In each of the three weeks, I spent a total of R430. What is the price of cell phone data (per 100MB)
Q21:
The following shows a logical sequence of five figures.Identify which of the following best matches the next figure in the sequence:
Q22:
The following shows a logical sequence of five figures. Identify which of the following best matches the next figure in the sequence:
Q23:
The following shows a logical sequence of five figures. Identify which of the following best matches the next figure in the sequence:
Q24:
The following shows a logical sequence of five figures. Identify which of the following best matches the next figure in the sequence:
Q25:
The following shows a logical sequence of five figures. Identify which of the following best matches the question mark (i.e. missing figure in the sequence):
Q26:
The following shows a logical sequence of five figures. Identify which of the following best matches the question mark (i.e. missing figure in the sequence):
Q27:
A coin is tossed 10 times and lands on tails every time. What is the probability that the next toss lands on heads?
Q28:
A coin is tossed 5 times. What is the probability that it lands on tails exactly 4 of the 5 times?
Q29:
What is the angle between the hands of a clock at 10.30?
Q30:
Three cats kill 3 rats in 3 minutes. How much time would it take for 100 cats to kill 100 rats?
Q31:
If ‘AWAKE’ is KAWAE, then SLEEP is
Q32:
If ADD = 9, BAD = 7, and CAD = 8, then what is the value of ADA?
Q33:
Solve for the values of X, P, L, O and R where each is a unique integer (i.e. a number from 0 to 9).
XPLOR × 4 = ROLPX.
What is the value of X + P + L + O + R?
Q34:
What are the number of routes to get from the top left corner to the bottom right corner? You are only allowed to travel on a line and have two different moves available: right or down. One possible route is given in red below.
Q35:
In one jar, I have two balls labelled 1 and 2 respectively. In a second jar, I have three balls labelled 0, 1 and 2 respectively.

I reach a hand into each of the jars, multiply the numbers on the two balls I draw together, and then calculate three to the power of that product, e.g. if I draw 1 and 2, I calculate 3^2=9. Let’s call this number X.

What is the probability that the number 1,024 is an exact multiple of X?
Q36:
Of a group of students, 26 enjoy reading, 32 enjoy going to the movies and 30 enjoy solving mathematical problems.

Of these, 5 students like all three activities, while 37 like only one of them.How many students like only two of the three activities?
Q37:
In South Africa, it is estimated that the population is 60 million, of whom 23 million speak isiZulu as a home language, 9 million speak isiXhosa and 7 million speak Afrikaans. In addition, 52% of the population is female and 48% male.

How many South Africans are females whose home language was either isiXhosa or Afrikaans?
Q38:
Jacob currently grows and sells 10 butternuts each week to a spaza shop. Each butternut costs R4 to grow and is sold for R7.

Jacob notices that the spaza shop does not yet sell cauliflowers. Cauliflowers cost R6 each to grow. Jacob visited the spaza shop and discussed the possibility of selling cauliflowers with the owner. She is open to the idea and is prepared to buy one cauliflower a week for R12,50. She could buy more cauliflowers, but is then prepared to pay less for each of the cauliflowers as she would not be able to sell them all at such a high price. After thinking about it, she is prepared to buy the following quantities of cauliflowers per week at the following prices:

Prepared to buy123 45678910
Price per cauliflower boughtR12.50R12.00R11.50 R11.00R10.50R10.00R9.50R9.00 R8.50R8.00

Jacob can only grow and sell 10 vegetables in a week. What is the optimum number of cauliflower and butternut for him to optimize his profit.
Q39:
Given this dataset, please select which model best reflects the classification of points into either blue dots or orange triangles?
Q40:
A car was involved in a hit and run accident, with Dewald there to witness it. It turns out that 1 in 10 cars on the road is a self-driving car. Dewald said the car involved was a self-driving car. The court tested Dewald’s reliability and concluded that he correctly identified what type of car he saw 80% of the time.
What is the probability that the car involved in the accident was a self-driving car, given Dewald’s testimony?
Please enter the answer in percentages to the nearest two decimals places: e.g. 50.00%
Hint: you may find Bayes Theorem helpful in getting to your answer
Thanks for your application. We will let you know about the next steps once the application process closes at the end of August 2019.

Please let us have your details so we can begin the registration process. Also please submit any questions you may have - we will get back to you promptly

Let us know if you have any questions

Thanks for your application. We will let you know about the next steps once the application process closes at the end of August 2019