1.
Logistic Regression
Purpose: To predict the probability of a binary outcome based on one or more predictor
variables.
Strengths:
Simplicity: Easy to understand and implement.
Interpretability: Coefficients can be interpreted as the impact of predictor variables
on the probability of the outcome.
Efficiency: Computationally efficient and works well with large datasets.
Weaknesses:
Linearity: Assumes a linear relationship between predictors and the log-odds of the
outcome.
Limited to Binary Classification: Primarily used for binary classification, though
extensions exist for multi-class classification.
Best Use Cases:
Problems where interpretability is crucial (e.g., medical diagnosis).
Scenarios with a binary outcome and a linear decision boundary.
Baseline model to compare with more complex models.
2. Decision Trees
Purpose: To create a model that predicts the value of a target variable by learning simple
decision rules inferred from the data features.
Strengths:
Interpretability: Easy to understand and visualize.
Non-linear Relationships: Can capture non-linear relationships between features and
the target.
No Need for Feature Scaling: Works well with data in its raw form.
Weaknesses:
Overfitting: Prone to overfitting, especially with deep trees.
Instability: Small changes in the data can lead to very different trees.
Best Use Cases:
Situations requiring interpretable models.
Problems where the relationship between features and the target is non-linear.
As a base learner in ensemble methods like Random Forests.
3. Random Forest
Purpose: To improve the performance and robustness of decision trees by averaging multiple
trees trained on different parts of the data.
Strengths:
Accuracy: Generally high performance due to ensemble learning.
Robustness: Less prone to overfitting compared to single decision trees.
Feature Importance: Provides estimates of feature importance.
Weaknesses:
Complexity: Less interpretable than a single decision tree.
Computational Cost: Requires more computational resources.
Best Use Cases:
Problems with a large number of features and complex interactions.
Situations where high accuracy is more important than model interpretability.
Data with many outliers or noise.
4. Gradient Boosting (e.g., XGBoost, LightGBM)
Purpose: To build a strong classifier from an ensemble of weak classifiers, typically decision
trees, by iteratively correcting errors from previous trees.
Strengths:
Performance: Often achieves state-of-the-art results on structured data.
Flexibility: Can handle various types of data and loss functions.
Feature Importance: Provides insights into the importance of different features.
Weaknesses:
Overfitting: Prone to overfitting if not properly tuned.
Hyperparameter Tuning: Requires careful tuning of multiple hyperparameters.
Computational Cost: Can be slow to train on large datasets.
Best Use Cases:
Structured/tabular data with complex relationships.
Situations requiring high accuracy and performance.
Problems where feature importance insights are valuable.
5. Support Vector Machines (SVM)
Purpose: To find the hyperplane that best separates the classes in the feature space.
Strengths:
Effective in High Dimensions: Works well when the number of features is large.
Robustness: Robust to overfitting, especially with proper kernel choice.
Memory Efficiency: Uses a subset of training points (support vectors) in the decision
function.
Weaknesses:
Scalability: Not suitable for very large datasets.
Kernel Selection: Performance depends heavily on the choice of the kernel and its
parameters.
Interpretability: Less interpretable compared to decision tree-based models.
Best Use Cases:
Smaller to medium-sized datasets with clear margin of separation.
Text categorization and image recognition tasks.
Problems with high-dimensional feature spaces.
6. K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN)
Purpose: To classify data points based on the classes of their nearest neighbors.
Strengths:
Simplicity: Simple to understand and implement.
No Training Phase: Training phase is virtually nonexistent.
Adaptability: Can adapt to changes in data quickly.
Weaknesses:
Computational Cost: High memory and computation cost during prediction.
Sensitivity to Irrelevant Features: Can be affected by irrelevant or noisy features.
Scalability: Not suitable for large datasets.
Best Use Cases:
Small datasets with clear clusters.
Problems where the relationship between features and classes is locally consistent.
Applications where simplicity and interpretability are important.
7. Neural Networks (e.g., Deep Learning)
Purpose: To model complex relationships between inputs and outputs through multiple
layers of neurons.
Strengths:
Performance: Can capture complex, non-linear relationships and interactions.
Flexibility: Applicable to a wide range of problems, from image recognition to
natural language processing.
Scalability: Scales well with large datasets and computational resources.
Weaknesses:
Complexity: Difficult to interpret and understand.
Computational Cost: Requires significant computational resources and training time.
Overfitting: Prone to overfitting, especially with small datasets.
Best Use Cases:
Large datasets with complex patterns, such as images, text, and speech.
Problems requiring high predictive performance.
Applications where feature engineering is difficult or infeasible.
8. Naive Bayes
Purpose: To classify data based on the Bayes theorem with the assumption of feature
independence.
Strengths:
Simplicity: Easy to implement and understand.
Efficiency: Fast to train and make predictions.
Scalability: Works well with large datasets.
Weaknesses:
Assumption of Independence: Assumes features are independent, which is often not
the case in real-world data.
Limited Expressiveness: Cannot capture interactions between features.
Best Use Cases:
Text classification tasks such as spam detection.
Problems where the assumption of feature independence is reasonable.
Situations requiring fast and scalable solutions.
