Data Science Subreddits: 11 Subreddits You NEED to Join!

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Subreddits aren’t foreign to you and you love having a fun community to discuss and learn data science. You must have come across this idea – what if you could involve yourself more in the subreddits of data science? Where do you start and which of them should you join to aid you in your learning?

Having to look through the various data science-related subreddits myself, I’ve narrowed down some of the best subreddit pages – so you’ll have an easier timing deciding which community to join! Have a look down below for some of the subreddits that I visit frequently.

Top 11 Data Science Subreddits to Join

1. r/datascience
2. r/MachineLearning
3. r/analytics
4. r/BusinessIntelligence
5. r/DataScienceJobs
6. r/datasets
7. r/visualization
8. r/dataisbeautiful
9. r/learnpython
10. r/rstats
11. r/SQL

Those are the most commonly visited subreddits by me and possibly many other data science learners and professionals. Although some might seem pretty obvious to be included while some others aren’t, I decided to add these subreddits to the top 11 for various reasons.

If you’re still undecided on which to pick and join, do continue reading as I share my experience and reasons for picking each specific subreddit. Let’s have a deeper look at the list below!

For those who are new to Reddit and are keen to join communities within data science subreddits, do stay on as I’ll be introducing all these great resources to you as well.

Introduction to Reddit

Before we start on the details of each subreddit, for the benefit of some of you who aren’t entirely sure of what a subreddit is, allow me to share more of the power of strong online communities found in subreddits. Firstly, when I talk about subreddits, I actually mean a specific page found on Reddit that consists of a community that’s set up for forums and discussions on a specific topic.

Reddit is a social news and forum platform on the internet that encourages social interactions and discussions on any kind of topic at all. Within Reddit, communities are further divided according to their specific interests and topics and assigned to subreddit pages. Upon joining a community, you can participate in engaging conversations about problems within data science or even share information with other learners. However, this information is shared in a social manner so some pages might even have casual content ranging from memes to videos.

Each subreddit represents a community that you can join and create posts to engage with other like-minded data science enthusiasts. To participate in discussions you would need to register for a free account on Reddit to access each community. Upon joining several communities of your choice, your homepage will become a feed of the featured posts from your subreddits. Each new post will turn up on your homepage, just like on Instagram or Facebook.

Sounds like your kind of thing? Let’s go ahead and have a deeper look at each of the 11 communities I’ve listed out.

Top 11 Data Science Subreddits to Join

1. r/datascience

About:

Let’s begin with the most obvious subreddit that almost every data enthusiast should be joining – the r/datascience subreddit. Also titled as the Data Science community, this is one of the larger subreddit pages on the topic of data science. This subreddit is used by many data science professionals for discussing topics across all parts of data science.

Based on my experience in this community, I’ve read through really widespread questions on data science. I’ve even had the chance to see some asking questions on career advice. Here’s one I found below from a member who gave a certain scenario and asked for career advice from fellow members.

Another example I found was where a member posted a question about smaller areas within data science, such as the no-code tools used in analytics. This sparked a good discussion that led to other data professionals sharing more of their personal experiences. Now that’s not something you’ll be able to find easily from other places like blogs and online courses.

Apart from all the seriousness, this subreddit community also welcomes fun through the use of memes. Moderators have chosen Mondays for the posting of memes and fun content to help lighten things up. Because no one wants to read plain content only.

Created: Aug 6, 2011

Number of Members: 442K

Reasons Why I Joined:

• A large community of data science professionals
• Career advice from data experts in a casual, social manner
• Frequent replies and posts
• Wide range of topics to read about
• Has a Wiki of FAQ and a learners’ resources page

Summary:

The Data Science subreddit is great for those who are looking for a community that can provide both personal input for a data science career decisions and also some technical advice on specific areas within the field. Being a large community, you should expect replies and additional comments on your post within a day or two. Post frequency is pretty high as well with around an average of 5 posts per day. The subreddit also features a Wiki of Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQ) and resources for those interested in learning more about data science.

Link to Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/datascience/

2. r/MachineLearning

About:

Another subreddit that can’t be missed is the r/MachineLearning subreddit page. This is the largest (1.8m members!) and oldest subreddit included in my list and it has been chosen for a good reason – the sheer amount of members present in this community. Besides being the largest, this subreddit is also for advanced and in-depth data science professionals. Specifically moderated to only have content appealing to machine learning only, most of their posts range from topics like predictive analytics pattern recognition and machine learning models. Members tend to have a greater variety of posts here, where data science news, latest research publications, videos of machine learning applications and personal projects are posted.

The screenshot I took below shows an example of a member who posted about research on deep learning, a popular field in machine learning. The research presentation was recorded in a talk found on YouTube, which I found really interesting.

Members that replied to the post gave helpful feedback and there was a mini discussion on some technicalities that confound me as well. However, if you are an enthusiast for machine learning research, I’m confident that you’ll appreciate such a community. If anyone’s interested, I included the YouTube video below.

Another type of post that appears commonly is project posts. Members can post links to their personal data science projects and ask for advice and feedback from the community. This can be a good platform for those exploring new software or skills within data science and machine learning. Here’s an example given below:

Number of Members: 1.8M

Reasons Why I Joined:

• HUGE and old community
• Good for receiving project feedback and for finding project inspirations
• Posts on latest research and news on data science

Summary:

Just like any large community, the MachineLearning subreddit is a huge treasure trove of all the good stuff, from projects to research to machine learning application videos. An online group of like-minded data science enthusiasts of this size just cannot be ignored. Moreover, I’ve seen some really useful content, especially those looking for a more advanced and in-depth discussion of deep research in machine learning. If you enjoy diving into the deep end of data science alongside a big community, that this is one subreddit you’ll love.

Link to subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/

3. r/analytics

About:

Here’s one for those who are sourcing for some good analytics discussion platforms. The r/analytics subreddit is made for data professional with a slightly different background from a standard data scientist. This subreddit is focused on areas involving digital and web analytics and sometimes business analytics. This subreddit has a heavy focus on Google Analytics and its related topics. Some of the topics you can expect here are digital marketing-related metrics, business operation analytics, data analyst skills and general business-related discussions.

This subreddit community is relatively smaller than the previously mentioned communities but as a relatively new but growing field, the analytics subreddit is looking to increase in members over the next few years ahead. Upon my time of writing (March 2020), there’s been 94.4K members actively participating in this subreddit.

Posts come in every 10 hours or so, which make up to around 2-3 posts per day. Most posts are categorized into either questions, discussions or Google Analytics-related, to lead a conversation within the forum. Here’s a great example of questions posted by a fellow member of the community. As you can see, there have already been 12 comments to the question only 3 days after it was posted. I felt that the replies were helpful and comments genuinely wanted to help others out in their questions. So I would say the community is pretty supportive – if that’s what you’re looking for.

Another awesome thing I have just got to mention is the Discord server for their community! Not only is the Discord server helpful for others to share and discuss openly through free chat, but it also provides chances for interaction on a regular basis. I’ve not personally been involved in the Discord server but it’s definitely good to have!

Number of Members: 94.4K

Reasons Why I Joined:

• Information on Web Analytics (these aren’t really discussed enough)
• Relatively new areas of discussion, which makes it beginner-friendly
• Has a neat Discord Server

Summary:

This subreddit covers a relatively smaller area within data science, crossing with both marketing and business applications. With a focus on web and digital analytics, this subreddit would be perfect for those who are just getting to learn about the analytics space. Although this might not be one for those doing higher-level analytics, you might also learn a thing a two from the various possible applications of analytics in marketing from this community.

Link to subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/analytics/

4. r/BusinessIntelligence

About:

Business applications have always been the reason why data science has been increasing in demand over the past few years. With new areas developing in the data science field such as business intelligence, you’ll realize that having a community specifically for data science applications in affecting business decisions is crucial too. This subreddit would then be the perfect community you’re looking for. Being heavily business-focused, the topics in this subreddit page is mainly targeted to business intelligence analysts and data analysts that perform more business analytics work.

This subreddit might be substantially smaller than that of the machine learning page, but the value provided here is comparable and no less than the others in this list. With just 73.8K members on this page, you can expect lesser discussion activity. However, I enjoyed the varied styles of discussion in this subreddit.

For example, here’s a cool poll that was posted by one of the community members to learn about the general opinion of the best business intelligence tool. I took part in the poll and found the results quite insightful and I can imagine that this might be quite useful if you’re relatively new to the business intelligence field.

Another unique feature I found on the subreddit page was the ‘Entering & Transitioning into a Business Intelligence career’ thread, as I’ve shown in my screenshot below. This is a weekly thread that refreshes every Monday to help guide entry-level, early career and career-switching BI enthusiasts with the right resources. For a full archive of their resources, you can go to this link.

Guess what? There’s more! This subreddit even has a dedicated Slack channel for anyone to join for free that no other subreddit has so far. This might be a useful way for some of you to get to know some business intelligence professionals through some direct chats. Other than networking, this Slack Channel also encourages further sharing and allows for building a better community. Although this might only be a small Channel of 191 members at this point, I’m positive that you’ll see these numbers grow as the BI demand increases. That’s another aspect for you to consider!

Number of Members: 73.8K

Reasons Why I Joined:

• Specific for BI analysts and professionals
• Business analytics-focused
• Wide variety of posts (polls, discussions, questions)
• Slack Channel for direct discussions and networking
• Weekly ‘Entering & Transitioning into a Business Intelligence career’ thread

Summary:

The r/BusinessIntelligence subreddit is a great addition to your essential communities if you are considering a pivot from pure data science into a business application-focused role. Perfect for those starting in their career in Business Intelligence, this subreddit gives so much more than just a basic discussion on Reddit, because of their interactive posts, Slack channel and weekly career thread. If you’re just stepping into the BI field, here’s one you shouldn’t miss out on!

Link to subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BusinessIntelligence/

5. r/DataScienceJobs

About:

The r/DataScienceJobs subreddit is pretty different from the others I’ve mentioned before, this page is purely meant for job opportunities in data science. The page typically consists of posts of jobs related to data such as data scientists, data analysts and data engineers. However, the subreddit also encourages you to put yourself in the spotlight for data science recruiters to notice you. This can be especially useful for those of you who are currently sourcing to possible jobs in the data science field.

However, this subreddit is not location-specific. That means that a larger portion of the job posts posted here might not actually appeal to you. Nonetheless, this could be a good addition as a career site for those who are currently on a data science job hunt.

One other neat feature of this subreddit is the high post frequency. With posts coming in every few hours, I’m confident that you’ll be able to find something suitable for yourself without waiting for long. Here’s a screenshot of some examples of the job posts. Each job post has details of the type of contract and the location of work.

Number of Members: 15.3K

Reasons Why I Joined:

• Great source of data-specific jobs
• High post frequency
• Job posts are not limited by specific locations

Summary:

The r/DataScienceJobs subreddit fulfils its sole purpose, which is to push data-related jobs to you. If you’re looking for a data science role in your area, this subreddit might be a good addition to your list of career sites to track for your job hunt. However, this subreddit can also be useful for those not on a job hunt, as the community allows for putting yourself in a spotlight for recruiters. Although I’ve never actually landed a job through this subreddit, I’m pretty confident that it might benefit some. This subreddit is great for those who want a higher post frequency to look through when sourcing for their next data job.

Link to subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataScienceJobs/

6. r/datasets

About:

This subreddit would be one of the hidden gems in this list simply because of the demand for datasets out there! The r/datasets subreddit is a page set up just for the purpose of sharing and providing datasets for us data enthusiasts. Backed by a large community of 138K members, this subreddit can provide you with a HUGE selection of datasets from different sources. Posts are made every few hours so you’ll never find any lack of new datasets to practice your data cleaning and transformation skills.

Some of the datasets here are really obscure and you’re very unlikely to find such unique datasets elsewhere without doing the data scraping yourself. This subreddit can be a good alternative for those who find that the Kaggle datasets may be limited in their specific area of interest. Then this would be the perfect resource for you! Let’s have a look at one of the datasets I found recently. This is an example of a dataset uploaded by a member, for use by other members in the community.

Besides being a resource for datasets, this subreddit’s posts are categorized into a few categories; dataset, resource, discussion, request, code, survey, API and question. This can help you filter out the posts according to your needs. For example, you can put in a dataset request as a post for the community to see if anyone has the datasets you require. This can be a handy way for you to get the datasets you want for your next data science project!

Number of Members: 138K

Reasons Why I Joined:

• Large group of members
• Resource for unique datasets
• A place to request for specific datasets
• Alternative to Kaggle for datasets

Summary:

The r/datasets subreddit is a resource-packed page that’s perfect for anyone looking for some unique datasets from a large community of data users. If you’re used to working with datasets from Kaggle, then this subreddit would be a good 2nd choice for you to get started with playing with some data. Do give it a try! You might just discover a whole underrated resource for your data source needs.

Link to subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/datasets/

7. r/visualization

About:

Let’s look at something that appeals more to the visual learners out there. The first subreddit that I’d go-to for great visualizations would be the r/visualization subreddit. This community focuses on sharing and discussing the best data visualizations and infographics out there. With such a heavy focus on beautiful data visualizations, you’d expect this page to be filled with images and diagrams, right? That’s definitely what this page is full of visuals to help inspire data analysts and storytellers like you!

Some of the typical posts found on the subreddit are either excellent data visualizations or request for help on which method to present a specific type of information. Posts are made by the community on an average of 1-2 days with frequent comments and replies to them.

I took this screenshot below of a data visualization that was rather inspirational to me. Although the chart may look simple, it is an intuitive one that any user would be able to understand.

Allow me to show you another one of my favorites that caught my eye when browsing the page a few days back – a life expectancy chart plotted against major life crises across the past few decades. I’d say that this was a good effort from the member who posted! The comments made on this post were helpful as well – members pointed out that information from the COVID-19 Pandemic could have been included and compared. What a great engagement and positive environment for learning! I might even post some of my personal projects on this platform to get some feedback myself.

Number of Members: 70.1K

Reasons Why I Joined:

• Excellent choice for visual learners
• Inspiration for beautiful visualizations
• Good community feedback from members

Summary:

An overall great community, the r/visualization subreddit page is for those looking to expand their exposure to varied forms of data visualizations as well as to get some feedback along the way. I would highly recommend any data analysts among you who constantly work with visualizations and dashboards that speak to business owners.

Link to subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/visualization/

8. r/dataisbeautiful

About:

If you’re reading this, you’re likely to agree that data is beautiful and it really is the oil that drives decisions. The community at the r/DataIsBeautiful thinks no differently. This subreddit is packed with data lovers with a passion for beautifully-made data visualizations that effectively convey information.

Posts made by members are also pretty frequent, where a new post goes would go up every 10 hours or so. I was also really impressed with how community engagement was for each post. Most posts would have quite a number of comments after a few hours.

The posts here are mainly divided into two categories:

1. Discussions
2. Original Content [OC]

Here’s an example of a post made by a member of his/her own original content and was tagged with [OC]. I found this viz rather interesting, given that our topic here is on Reddit. Here’s a deeper look at the auto-complete sentences made by Google when searching for Reddit. Here’s a link to this post, for your reference.

This large community goes beyond just the discussion forums within the subreddit page. In fact the Data Is Beautiful community has a Twitter account that you can follow and even a Discord Server where anyone can join in for free for more interactive discussions! In case you’re not aware, Discord is a platform for text and voice chat discussions with a social approach. This casual form of community is great for anyone looking for advice in data science. For more information, head over to The Discord Website to learn more or you can check out my article on my top 10 data science Discord Servers for a helpful starting list.

I had a look through the community available on the r/DataIsBeautiful Discord Server and was quite pleasantly surprised with how much you can gain from it. There are specific voice channels dedicated just for help on data visualization. So if you’re someone who’s struggling with some problem, you might want to join in and try that out as well.

Invitation to Discord Server: Click here

Number of Members: 15.6m

Reasons Why I Joined:

• Really HUGE number of members participating
• Lots of visualizations – good for visual learners
• Posts are frequent – enough to catch up every few hours
• Plenty of advice from comments
• Interactive community on dedicated Discord Server

Summary:

The r/DataIsBeautiful subreddit is the biggest page so far, standing at more than a dozen million members (15.6m). The huge community means that feedback and interactive engagement between members are more likely and I’ve found that to be true when I explored further through the posts. Also, a big PLUS would be the Discord Server available for members who seek more direct interaction with like-minded data visualization enthusiasts. As a subreddit focused solely on data visualizations, this would be perfect for those of you who require more emphasis on charts and dashboards in your work.

Link to subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/

9. r/learnpython

About:

Almost every data professional has to come across Python at some point for more advanced data analysis and modelling. What better place to learn more about Python than on the r/learnpython (Python Education) Subreddit! Created for the purpose of being a platform for posting questions and seeking advice in Python, this subreddit can be useful for you if you’ve just started learning Python recently.

However, this page might not be fully focused on Python for data science applications so do take that in mind. Nonetheless, it should provide ample opportunities to ask or read questions relating to Python in data science as the post frequency is comparatively high at an average of 1 post per hour.

Let’s have a look at the screenshot below to see how the posts usually go in the forum! Here we have a question posted by a member, asking for feedback on Python code.

And here are some useful feedback from some other members of the community. I’d say that the community did seem like a really helpful group of Python programmers and gave comments in an honest manner. If you’re one that appreciates some honesty and constructive feedback, you can consider posting here as well.

This subreddit also has some other useful resources on it’s Wiki page, where a large compilation of Python learning resources is listed out to help beginners in their learning. There’s also the FAQ page, where common Python-related questions are answered in a detailed post (also another great resource for beginners).

Number of Members: 503K

Reasons Why I Joined:

• Huge community of dedicated Python programmers
• Active and interactive community
• Useful list of resources on Wiki and FAQ pages

Summary:

This r/learnpython subreddit is great for those who have chosen to learn Python to handle data analysis and run their machine learning models. It offers a large, wonderful community that provides consistent feedback on any questions posted on the subreddit page.

Link to subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/

10. r/rstats

About:

Now, we shouldn’t be missing out on those of you learning R programming, would we? The r/stats (The Statistical Computing with R subreddit) community is something just those of you out there who are frequent users of the R language. Commonly used in scientific and statistical applications, the R programming language usually lacks good communities because of it’s lack of popularity.

Nonetheless, this subreddit page would be able to provide for your discussion needs in all things R. With a sizable community of 51.9K members, this page is a platform used by its members for asking questions related to R. Some posts ask for feedback on their code and others ask advice for some R package-specific problems.

Here’s a screenshot of a post asking for advice on regression. Here’s a link to the post. The comments gave some really good advice on how the problem should be approached, which was not really what I had expected in such a small community. This just proves that this subreddit can still provide high-value feedback despite its relatively smaller community!

Number of Members: 51.9K

Reasons Why I Joined:

• R programming-specific topics
• Detailed and dedicated member feedback

Summary:

An overall great place to start getting involved in a community with R programming expertise, this subreddit would be perfect if you’re seeking good advice for R in data science from a dedicated community.

Link to subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/rstats/

11. r/SQL

About:

Now that we’ve looked at communities for both Python and R, our last crucial data science skill would be Structured Query Language (SQL). Any data professional would agree that SQL is one of the most underrated and most used language when working with databases and querying new data. Therefore, the r/SQL subreddit can prove to be a powerful resource for data enthusiasts like you in your learning journey to mastering SQL.

This subreddit is split into two main categories – discussion questions and database-related questions. The database questions can be further filtered down to specific databases such as:

• MySQL
• Oracle
• PostgreSQL
• MS SQL
• SQLite
• DB2
• MariaDB

There’s even a neat filter function available for you to select the database of your choice!

Just like the previous few subreddits on programming languages, the post frequency and response rate is high in the r/SQL subreddit. This shows that the community is healthy and that you would expect a response from a fellow member with high confidence!

Here’s an example of a post for a request for help on an SQL problem with replicates. Here’s the link for you to check it out!

Additionally, this subreddit also features a Wiki page for a full list of great SQL learning resources that any beginner would really love!

Number of Members: 86.4K

Reasons Why I Joined:

• Responsive community of SQL developers/data analysts
• A good mix of code-based questions and data analyst career discussions
• Good Wiki page of SQL learning resources

Summary:

This subreddit exceeded my expectations for such an under-rated language in the data science field. SQL learning resources can be quite difficult to get your hands on so this subreddit can really be a gem for those just stepping into SQL. The page provides good community support in feedback across a wide range of databases and member replies are also pretty fast as well. Quite a fairly good community for data analysts among you who query data on a daily basis.

Link to subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SQL/

Conclusion

This concludes my ultimate list of 11 subreddits that I personally found useful in my learning journey as a budding data analyst! Each subreddit provides for different aspects within the data science field and I tried my best to include all the main areas within data as much as possible. I’m confident that any of these communities would be of benefit to you, regardless of your experience level.

I hope you’ve gathered some useful information for yourself about these great communities from this article! Go pick out 2-3 of them and jump right into some discussions with your fellow members now! Alternatively, you might want to bookmark this article on your browser to revisit any of the subreddits mentioned again. Thanks for reading!