Judging Criteria

Each team is scored on 5 criteria, each worth up to 10 points. Maximum score: 50 points.

#	Criterion	Max Points
1	Business Value & Relevance	10
2	Cloudflare Integration	10
3	AI Depth	10
4	Feasibility & Architecture Quality	10
5	Presentation & Clarity	10
	Total	50

Criterion 1 — Business Value & Relevance (0–10)

Does the solution solve a real, meaningful problem for the chosen company? Is the business case clear and compelling? Does it create measurable value?

Value can be delivered in any form: Cost reduction or operational efficiency, revenue growth or new monetisation, risk reduction or compliance improvement, faster time to market or developer productivity, or better customer experience or retention.

Score	Description
9–10	Specific, quantifiable impact on a real pain point. Hard to argue against building it.
6–8	Clear business case with plausible impact. Some assumptions left unvalidated.
3–5	Reasonable idea but impact is vague, generic, or not specific to this company.
0–2	No clear connection to a real business need.

Criterion 2 — Cloudflare Integration (0–10)

Does the solution use Cloudflare products in a meaningful, architecturally sound way? Products should solve a real problem within the solution — not be mentioned in passing.

Qualifying products include (but are not limited to): Workers, Containers, Durable Objects, Workers KV, D1, R2, Queues, Workflows, Vectorize, Workers AI, AI Gateway, Agents SDK, Workers for Platforms, MCP Servers, Hyperdrive, Replicate, Custom Model Hosting (LoRA fine-tunes or Containers), Firewall for AI, AI Security for Apps, Zero Trust for AI.

Excluded: Standard CDN, WAF, DDoS protection, DNS.

Score	Description
9–10	Multiple Cloudflare products used correctly. Each one is genuinely the right tool for that part of the architecture. Could not easily be swapped for a competitor without changing the design.
6–8	One strong Cloudflare product used correctly and naturally.
3–5	Cloudflare product mentioned but usage is superficial, incorrect, or could trivially be replaced.
0–2	No qualifying Cloudflare usage.

Penalty: If a Cloudflare product clearly fits the use case and the team chose a non-Cloudflare alternative instead, without justification, up to −3 points may be applied at judge discretion.

Criterion 3 — AI Depth (0–10)

Is AI central to the solution — not just a buzzword? Does the AI component meaningfully change what is possible, or would the solution work just as well without it?

Score	Description
9–10	AI is the core engine. The solution fundamentally could not exist without it. The team understands what model they would use and why.
6–8	AI is used meaningfully and adds clear value, but is not the primary differentiator.
3–5	AI is included but plays a supporting or decorative role. Could be removed with minimal impact.
0–2	AI is mentioned but has no real function in the architecture.

Criterion 4 — Feasibility & Architecture Quality (0–10)

Could this actually be built? Is the architecture coherent and technically plausible? Are the right tools chosen for each component?

Score	Description
9–10	Clear, realistic architecture. No major technical contradictions. Team can explain how each component works together and why each was chosen.
6–8	Generally plausible. Minor gaps or unexplained assumptions, but nothing that breaks the design.
3–5	Architecture has significant gaps, questionable technical choices, or missing components.
0–2	Architecture is unclear, unrealistic, or self-contradictory.

Criterion 5 — Presentation & Clarity (0–10)

Is the pitch clear and structured? Does the team communicate the problem, solution, and value convincingly within the allotted time?

Score	Description
9–10	Crisp, confident, and well-structured. Judges immediately understand the what, why, and how. No time wasted.
6–8	The idea is communicated clearly but the presentation has minor gaps or could be better organised.
3–5	The idea is hard to follow, key elements are missing, or the team ran significantly over/under time.
0–2	The pitch is unclear or the team cannot answer basic questions about their design.

Tie-Breaker

In case of equal total scores: the team with the higher Cloudflare Integration score wins.

Judge Score Sheet

Team name / table: ___________________________

Company chosen: ___________________________

Criterion 1 — Business Value & Relevance: ___ / 10

Criterion 2 — Cloudflare Integration: ___ / 10

Penalty applied (−0 to −3): − ___

Criterion 3 — AI Depth: ___ / 10

Criterion 4 — Feasibility & Architecture: ___ / 10

Criterion 5 — Presentation & Clarity: ___ / 10

TOTAL: ___ / 50

Notes:

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