Pick something small and yours
Why "is my bus usually late" is a better first project than "climate change", and how to tell if your question will work.
The hardest part of a first data project is not the code. It is picking a question you can actually finish.
Big questions are the trap
"Climate change." "Social media and mental health." "Which career pays best."
These sound impressive and they all fail the same way: the data is enormous, other people already argued about it, and there is nothing you can personally check. You will spend three weeks downloading things and finish nothing.
Small questions work
- Is my bus usually late, and is it worse on some days?
- Which subject do I actually spend the most time on — not which one I think?
- How much does my family spend on vegetables in a month?
- Do I sleep worse on days I have more screen time?
- Which player on my favourite team is actually the most consistent?
Every one of these is finishable in a fortnight. Every one has an answer nobody else has. And you will know if the answer is nonsense, because it is about your own life — which is a superpower a beginner rarely gets.
Three tests for your question
Can you get the data? Either you can count it yourself, or you can find a file someone published. If neither, pick again — this is not a failure, it is the check working.
Will you know if the answer is silly? If your analysis says your bus is late four hours a day, you will notice. On a topic you know nothing about, you will not, and you will present a wrong answer confidently.
Do you actually want to know? You will hit a boring afternoon of fixing dates. Mild curiosity does not survive that. Real curiosity does.
Write it as one sentence
Not "buses". Write:
Is the 7:40 bus from my stop late more often on Mondays than on other days?
That names what you are measuring, for what, and what you are comparing it against. Pin it somewhere you will see it, because in two weeks it is what stops you drifting into a different, vaguer project.
It is fine to be wrong
You might find the bus is not late on Mondays. That is a real result, not a failed project. "I expected X, I found Y" is a better thing to show someone than a result that confirms what everybody assumed.
Do this now
Write down three questions. Test each against the three tests. Keep the one that passes and that you most want the answer to.
That is the whole lesson. The next one is about getting the data.