Hi there

The error you’re seeing occurs because Zindi does not accept standard .html notebooks exported from Jupyter or Kaggle for this particular challenge.

This competition uses Observable Notebooks, which are based on JavaScript (not Python) and have a completely different notebook format and runtime. That’s why when you upload a regular .html file converted with

jupyter nbconvert --to html the_sub_notebook.ipynb

Zindi’s scoring system cannot read it. It expects an Observable export.

To submit a valid notebook, you must work directly inside Observable and then export it properly using the Observable Notebook Kit tool.

To do it:

1. Make sure you have a JavaScript runtime installed, such as Node.js (v24+), Deno (v2.2+), or Bun (v1.2+).
2. Install the Notebook Kit:

npm add @observablehq/notebook-kitor
// OR
deno add npm:@observablehq/notebook-kit@latest

3. Export as .html file using the CLI:

notebook-kit download \
"https://observablehq.com/d/8a953dc1cde63a86" \
> notebook.html 

(Replace the URL with your own Observable notebook link.)

4. Then, upload the generated notebook .html file to Zindi. It will be correctly recognized.

You can find the documentation for the process here : Export Notebooks to HTML with Notebook Kit