---

### 🧠 **MNIST Digit Recognition Competition Rules**

#### 📅 General Rules
1. **Eligibility**: Open to individuals or teams of up to 3 members.
2. **Registration Deadline**: [20 April 2025]
3. **Submission Deadline**: [20 April 2025]
4. **Team Naming**: Keep it clean, fun, and unique.
5. **One Entry per Team**: Only the final submission will be considered.

#### 📁 Dataset Rules
1. **Dataset**: Only the official MNIST dataset is allowed. You may use train/test splits as provided.
2. **No External Datasets**: External data for training is not permitted unless otherwise specified.

#### 🛠️ Model and Code Rules
1. **Allowed Tools**: Any programming language or library (Python + TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch, Scikit-learn, etc.) is allowed.
2. **Code Submission**: You must submit your full code along with your final predictions.
3. **Reproducibility**: Your code must be well-documented and reproducible.
4. **No Pretrained Models**: Models trained on external datasets (e.g., ImageNet) are not allowed.

#### 📊 Evaluation Criteria
1. **Accuracy**: Submissions will be ranked based on test set classification accuracy.
2. **Tie-Breaker**: In case of a tie, the most efficient model (e.g., fewer parameters, faster inference) may be chosen.
3. **Plagiarism**: Strictly prohibited. Copied code will lead to disqualification.

#### 🏆 Winning & Prizes
1. **Top Performers**: Prizes will be awarded to the top 3 teams.
2. **Judges' Choice**: A special mention may be given for creative approach, clean code, or innovative visualization.

#### 💬 Communication
1. **Doubts & Clarifications**: Post questions in the official competition forum/group.
2. **Mentorship**: Basic ML guidance will be available to beginners on request.

---

Let me know if you want a version formatted for a PDF, flyer, or GitHub README!