What is the main difference between K-means and K-medoids clustering?

Practice Questions

Q1
What is the main difference between K-means and K-medoids clustering?
  1. K-means uses centroids, while K-medoids uses actual data points
  2. K-medoids is faster than K-means
  3. K-means can only handle numerical data, while K-medoids can handle categorical data
  4. K-medoids requires the number of clusters to be specified, while K-means does not

Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions

What is the main difference between K-means and K-medoids clustering?
Correct Answer: K-means uses centroids, K-medoids uses actual data points.
  • Step 1: Understand that both K-means and K-medoids are clustering methods used to group similar data points.
  • Step 2: Learn that K-means uses a 'centroid' which is the average of all points in a cluster to represent that cluster.
  • Step 3: Realize that K-medoids uses an actual data point from the cluster, called a 'medoid', as the center of the cluster.
  • Step 4: Note that because K-medoids uses real data points, it is less affected by outliers (extreme values) compared to K-means.
No concepts available.
Soulshift Feedback ×

On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend The Soulshift Academy?

Not likely Very likely