Five Data Science Mini Projects You Can Start Today

A good mini project has a clear question and a dataset you control. Here are five you can start in an afternoon.

Open the Mock Data Generator

1) Which course has the best results? Generate the Students dataset, group marks by course and year, and chart the averages. Add attendance and check whether it relates to marks. 2) Where do orders drop off? Generate Orders, count by status and by month, and find the cancel rate.

3) Detect odd readings. Generate the IoT readings dataset, plot temperature over time, and flag values that sit far from the average. 4) Payment patterns. Generate Transactions, split by type and currency, and look at the distribution of amounts. 5) Staff pay. Generate Employees and compare salary by department and by hire year.

The data is made up, so any pattern you find is the pattern of the generator, not of the real world. That is fine for learning the method: loading, cleaning, grouping, charting and writing up. State clearly in your report that the data is synthetic, and describe the columns and ranges you used.

Use the Data Profiler to check for blanks and duplicates, SQL on Your Files for queries, and Data Transformation to clean and reshape before you chart.

Everything runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded.

Open the Mock Data Generator

Related tool pages

  • Fake Data Generator: Generate realistic fake data online: names, emails, addresses, dates and more, up to 500,000 rows, as CSV, JSON, Parquet or Excel. Free.
  • Test Data Generator: Generate test data for databases and apps: names, emails, addresses, dates and numbers, up to 500,000 rows, as CSV, JSON, Parquet or Excel. Free.
  • Student Data Generator: Fake Student Records: Generate fake student data for class projects: IDs, names, courses, marks and attendance. Download CSV, Excel, JSON or Parquet. Free.
  • Student Marks Dataset Generator: Create a student marks dataset by student, subject and exam for SQL, Excel pivot tables and charts. Free, in your browser.
  • Sample Data for SQL Practice: Generate sample tables for SQL practice (students, orders, employees), download CSV and query it in your browser. Free.
  • Dummy Data for Excel Practice: Generate dummy sales, student or employee data and download Excel to practise filters, pivot tables and VLOOKUP. Free.

How to use the Mock Data Generator: step by step

  1. Pick a project and generate its dataset.
  2. Profile the data for blanks and duplicates.
  3. Answer the questions with SQL, Excel or Python.
  4. Write up the method and say the data is synthetic.

When to use the Mock Data Generator

  • Choose a topic for a college project
  • Practise the full analysis steps
  • Build a portfolio piece
  • Make data for a demo

Example

Input: Dataset: Customers, 3 rows

Output: id,name,email 1,Maya Patel,maya.patel@example.com 2,Leo Fischer,leo.fischer@example.com

Frequently asked questions

Is the data real?

No. It is random and fictional, so it is safe to share.

Can I get the same data again?

No – each click makes new data. Download to keep a set.

How many rows can the Data Generator create?

Up to 500,000 rows at a time. Choose column types such as names, emails, addresses and dates, then download as CSV, JSON, Parquet or Excel.

Tip: Say in your report that the data is synthetic. It is honest, and teachers expect it for practice data.