Part 5. Case study 5: Predicting future friendships from social network data

Problem statement

Welcome to FriendHook, Silicon Valley’s hottest new startup. FriendHook is a social networking app for college undergrads. To join, an undergrad must scan their college ID to prove their affiliation. After approval, undergrads can create a FriendHook profile, which lists their dorm name and scholastic interests. Once a profile is created, an undergrad can send friend requests to other students at their college. A student who receives a friend request can either approve or reject it. When a friend request is approved, the pair of students are officially FriendHook friends. Using their new digital connection, FriendHook friends can share photographs, collaborate on coursework, and keep each other up to date on the latest campus gossip.

The FriendHook app is a hit. It’s utilized on hundreds of college campuses worldwide. The user base is growing, and so is the company. You are FriendHook’s first data science hire! Your first challenging task will be to work on FriendHook’s friend recommendation algorithm.

Introducing the friend-of-a-friend recommendation algorithm

Predicting user behavior

Dataset description

The Profiles table

The Observations table

The Friendships table

Overview