What is the difference between PCA and t-SNE?
Updated May 15, 2026
Short answer
PCA is linear, t-SNE is nonlinear for visualization.
Deep explanation
PCA preserves global variance; t-SNE preserves local structure.
Real-world example
Visualizing high-dimensional embeddings.
Common mistakes
- Using t-SNE for production pipelines.
Follow-up questions
- Is t-SNE deterministic?
- When to use PCA?