WorldQuant University is transitioning from its legacy virtual machine platform to a new platform called WorldQuant Learning Labs (WQ Learning Labs).
The new experience provides students and faculty with several features and enhancements that were unavailable in the previous platform.
Content will now be presented in a two-paneled layout, allowing learners to write and execute code in one panel while viewing content and engaging in activity checks in the other panel.
We appreciate your patience as we make the switch to the new Labs platform and offer new and updated labs experiences that take full advantage of the features available to our community.
Expand the sections below for more information on each of these topics:
Will my progress in the Program be saved?
Will my progress in the Program be saved?
Yes. Learners who have completed Projects will retain status at the Program level. Therefore, if you completed Project 1 and Project 2, that progress will be retained. However, if you have only partially completed a Project, you will need to start that individual Project from the beginning. For example, a learner who completed Project 1 and 2 but had Project 3 in a partially completed state, on June 16, they will need to start Project 3 from the beginning.
What will happen during the migration?
What will happen during the migration?
On June 16, 2025 at 9:00 AM Eastern, we will temporarily disable access to the WQU Platform to facilitate the transition. We encourage all learners to finish any Project that they are enrolled into prior to June 16, 2025 to avoid disruption.
Will my progress within an individual Project be saved and migrated?
Will my progress within an individual Project be saved and migrated?
No. June 15th, 2025 is the deadline to complete a Project if you would like your progress to be transferred. After that date, learners who have partially completed a Project will need to start that project from the beginning.
Can I return to previous Projects to review content after the migration?
Can I return to previous Projects to review content after the migration?
No, you will not be able to access your previous Projects after the migration is complete.
Before the migration, learners used Jupyter Notebooks on our older virtual machine system. That system will be shut down. After the migration, all learners will use the new WQ Learning Labs platform. We were not able to move each learner’s old Jupyter Notebooks to the new platform because it would have been too expensive. WQU offers high-quality education completely free of cost, and to keep it free for everyone, we must use our resources wisely.
We understand this may be inconvenient, and we appreciate your patience. Your support helps us continue building a strong global learning community.
I preferred the old Virtual Machine, can you bring it back?
I preferred the old Virtual Machine, can you bring it back?
We understand that users who grew accustomed to the original format of the Labs might prefer that experience to the new experience. The Labs were designed with that platform in mind and were migrated to the WorldQuant Learning Labs platform as a transitional phase.
WorldQuant University is always updating its curricula and later versions of the Applied Data Science Lab will be optimized for the WorldQuant Learning Labs platform. We appreciate your patience during this transition.
Why is my Project timing out on the new platform?
Why is my Project timing out on the new platform?
In order to maximize the number of people who can experience the opportunities that WQU makes possible, we must take special care to minimize the cost of our offerings. One way that we do this is by ensuring that we pay for computing resources only when learners are actively engaged.
The WorldQuant Labs platform will periodically ask a learner if they are still present and active in the notebook. If the learner does not answer within the allotted time, the virtual machine will be stopped in order to conserve resources.
We understand that this can be a minor inconvenience while you are working, but we appreciate your patience and understanding as it is measures like these that make it possible for WQU to offer its programs at zero cost to our learners.
The Check Activity button says my answer is incorrect but I believe I answered it correctly. What should I do?
The Check Activity button says my answer is incorrect but I believe I answered it correctly. What should I do?
Please post to the Forum in your Project and work with your Instructor. Provide as much detail as you can to allow the Instructor to replicate any errors you are experiencing. If there are discrepancies in the auto-grading feature, the Instructors will validate issues that learners report and they will escalate them to our content team for resolution.