@Lex Berezhny Great questions!

When we say prototype we mean working software. No lines of code have to be written. We are more concerned with the "how" you would accomplish what needs to be accomplished. Think of a prototype as a model for a house, we are not looking for the actual house or a model of the house, we are looking for the blueprint for the house. We can extract stuff like performance/speed from the design, we don't have to see it actually working.

Speed to market is the goal after we have ideas from this challenge, so a prototype could impact judging and I can say that one of the challengers does have a working prototype, but this is a long range project, a bad working prototype will not win over a solid design/blueprint. The point system for the judges does not allow any points for a working prototype.

I hope this answers your questions, if it created more questions, or I was not clear do not hesitate to ask more questions or clarifying questions.