The document outlines 9 challenges faced by data scientists: 1) poor quality data issues like dirty, missing, or inadequate data, 2) lack of understanding of data mining techniques, 3) lack of good literature on important topics and techniques, 4) difficulty for academic institutions accessing commercial-grade software at reasonable costs, 5) accommodating data from different sources and formats, 6) updating models constantly with new incoming data for online machine learning, 7) dealing with huge datasets requiring distributed approaches, 8) determining the right questions to ask of the data, and 9) remaining objective and letting the data lead rather than preconceptions.