DA0-002 Data Analysis Practice Question

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

• ✓

  Mean

  Why this is correct

  Every value contributes arithmetically to the mean, so a single extreme outlier shifts it substantially. The median depends only on positional rank, and the mode only on frequency, leaving both largely resistant to extreme values.

• ✗

  Range

  Why it's wrong here

  Range measures spread between maximum and minimum values, not central tendency, so it cannot answer a question about mean, median and mode. It is tempting because range is indeed highly outlier-sensitive, and would be correct if the question asked which measure of dispersion is most affected by extremes.

• ✗

  Median

  Why it's wrong here

  The median is the middle value, so extreme outliers shift it barely or not at all; it is the robust choice when a dataset contains skewed values or measurement errors. It fails here because the question asks which measure outliers affect most, and the mean absorbs every extreme value directly.

• ✗

  Mode

  Why it's wrong here

  The mode is the most frequent value; an extreme outlier usually appears once, so it rarely changes the mode at all. It is tempting because mode is a genuine measure of central tendency, and would be correct for categorical data where frequency, not magnitude, defines the centre.