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The Data School Chicken Nugget Challenge

This post was originally published on The Data School blog between 2018 and July 2025, before our program was renamed to MIP’s Analytics Career Accelerator. References throughout this article to “The Data School” or “DS” all refer to what is now MIP’s Analytics Career Accelerator. The program, its people, and its commitment to launching outstanding analytics careers remain the same – just under a new name.

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The Challenge

At a data-driven organisation like MIP & The Data School Down Under, facts, figures, and evidence, are the cornerstone of everything. This doesn’t just apply to business solutions and insights, but also to bold, food-eating claims. That’s why, when Data Schooler Oliver made the claim that he could eat 52 chicken nuggets in one sitting, a challenge was born.

Oliver’s confidence in his abilities and the organisation’s collective desire for truth meant that, from that moment onwards, a challenge to prove his claims was inevitable. As the discussion progressed, I knew that the showdown would need to be visualised. As a date was being finalised, I began gathering background information and planning out my dashboard. I collected some key metrics, such as weights, and I dug around the McDonald’s website to find nutritional information.

 

The Viz

When the big day arrived, and Oliver reached for his pile of nuggets, I grabbed my laptop and began logging as many details as I could. I used this data to create a viz that provides details of the challenge as well as a timeline of nugget consumption, nutritional info, and photos!

This was a fun one to pull together, and well done to Oliver for being such a good sport! I hope you all enjoy exploring the viz!

Did Oliver succeed? Or did the nuggets prove to be too much? Check out all the details at https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/jonathan.carter34/viz/TheDataSchoolNuggetChallenge/NuggetChallengeDashboard

 

Figure 1: Dashboard Screenshot

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