A good question is a good start

Almost always when you want to deal with data you'll need a question in mind. In research this is commonly called a hypothesis. While some research or data analysis can be done without a defined question - this is called exploratory research or data exploration - most people start with one. Having a defined question to answer gives you a clear direction.

How to ask a question?

Your outcome depends largely on the question you asked and the way you try to answer it (in research this is called methods). Finding a suitable question is a challenging thing to do. There are some questions where an answer has potentially high impact, some where the answer will have little impact. Some questions will be hard to answer, some will be easy to answer. This gives us a simple coordinate system for our questions.

Keeping this simple grid in mind can help you to determine whether it is worth pursuing the question you have in mind or not. Sometimes questions that are hard to answer become easier as more and more data becomes openly available.

Our question

To make things easier we picked a question that is easy to answer for (most) of the people participating. This can also give you a template for your question. The question we want to answer in the novice challenges is: If your countries debt was to be split equally in the population, how much would you have to pay? - also how does this compare to other countries?

Your question?

What is a question you want to answer? Answer us in the comments.