Databricks Databricks-Machine-Learning-Associate Exam With Confidence Using Practice Dumps

One-hot encoding transforms categorical variables into a format that can be provided to machine learning algorithms to better predict the output. However, when done prematurely or universally within a feature repository, it can be problematic:

• Dimensionality Increase:One-hot encoding significantly increases the feature space, especially with high cardinality features, which can lead to high memory consumption and slower computation.
• Model Specificity:Some models handle categorical variables natively (like decision trees and boosting algorithms), and premature one-hot encoding can lead to inefficiency and loss of information (e.g., ordinal relationships).
• Sparse Matrix Issue:It often results in a sparse matrix where most values are zero, which can be inefficient in both storage and computation for some algorithms.
• Generalization vs. Specificity:Encoding should ideally be tailored to specific models and use cases rather than applied generally in a feature repository.

References

• "Feature Engineering and Selection: A Practical Approach for Predictive Models" by Max Kuhn and Kjell Johnson (CRC Press, 2019).

Gradient boosting is fundamentally an iterative algorithm where each new tree is built based on the errors of the previous ones. This sequential dependency makes it difficult to parallelize the training of trees in gradient boosting, as each step relies on the results from the preceding step. Parallelization in this context would undermine the core methodology of the algorithm, which depends on sequentially improving the model'sperformance with each iteration.References:

• Machine Learning Algorithms (Challenges with Parallelizing Gradient Boosting).

Gradient boosting is an ensemble learning technique that builds models in a sequential manner. Each new model corrects the errors made by the previous ones. This sequential dependency means that each iteration requires the results of the previous iteration to make corrections. Here is a step-by-step explanation of why this makes parallelization challenging:

• Sequential Nature: Gradient boosting builds one tree at a time. Each tree is trained to correct the residual errors of the previous trees. This requires the model to complete one iteration before starting the next.
• Dependence on Previous Iterations: The gradient calculation at each step depends on the predictions made by the previous models. Therefore, the model must wait until the previous tree has been fully trained and evaluated before starting to train the next tree.
• Difficulty in Parallelization: Because of this dependency, it is challenging to parallelize the training process. Unlike algorithms that process data independently in each step (e.g., random forests), gradient boosting cannot easily distribute the work across multiple processors or cores for simultaneous execution.

This iterative and dependent nature of the gradient boosting process makes it difficult to parallelize effectively.

References

• Gradient Boosting Machine Learning Algorithm
• Understanding Gradient Boosting Machines

The method that transforms categorical features into a series of binary indicator variables is known as one-hot encoding. This technique converts each categorical value into a new binary column, which is essential for models that require numerical input. One-hot encoding is widely used because it helps to handle categorical data without introducing a false ordinal relationship among categories.References:

• Feature Engineering Techniques (One-Hot Encoding).