Add an exhaustive requirements.txt and a note on using Conda

CONDA.md

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+# Conda Requirement for Exercises
+
+## Why Conda is Required
+
+The exercises in this repository use **MLflow** to orchestrate ML pipelines. MLflow relies on **conda** to create isolated, reproducible environments for each pipeline step.
+
+Each exercise contains a `conda.yml` file that specifies the dependencies for that component. When you run:
+
+```bash
+mlflow run .
+```
+
+MLflow reads the `conda.yml` file and automatically creates a conda environment with the specified packages before executing the code.
+
+## Installing Conda
+
+If you don't have conda installed, you can install it via:
+
+- **Miniconda** (recommended, lightweight): https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html
+- **Anaconda** (full distribution): https://www.anaconda.com/download
+
+## Virtual Environment (requirements.txt)
+
+The `requirements.txt` file in the root directory contains all dependencies with pinned versions for the entire repository. This is useful for:
+
+- Exploring the codebase
+- Running standalone Python scripts
+- IDE/editor support and autocompletion
+
+To use it:
+
+```bash
+python3.13 -m venv venv
+source venv/bin/activate
+pip install -r requirements.txt
+```
+
+However, **for running the actual exercises**, you still need conda installed because MLflow will create its own conda environments from the individual `conda.yml` files.
+
+## Exercise Workflow
+
+1. Install conda (Miniconda or Anaconda)
+2. Navigate to an exercise directory (e.g., `lesson-1-machine-learning-pipelines/exercises/exercise_3/starter/`)
+3. Run the pipeline: `mlflow run .`
+4. MLflow will automatically create the conda environment and execute the code

requirements.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,46 @@
+# Core Data Science
 pandas==2.3.2
+numpy==2.2.6
+scipy==1.16.1
+
+# Machine Learning
+scikit-learn==1.7.2
+mlflow==3.2.0
+
+# Deep Learning (PyTorch)
+torch==2.8.0
+torchvision==0.23.0
+
+# Visualization
+matplotlib==3.10.0
+seaborn==0.13.2
+plotly==6.3.0
+
+# Workflow & Configuration Management
+hydra-core==1.3.2
+hydra-joblib-launcher==1.2.0
+omegaconf==2.3.0
+
+# Experiment Tracking
 wandb==0.21.3
-jupyter==1.1.1
+
+# Data Profiling
+ydata-profiling==4.18.1
+
+# Web & HTTP
+requests==2.32.5
+
+# Image Processing
+pillow==11.3.0
+
+# Testing
+pytest==8.4.2
+
+# Jupyter & Notebooks
+jupyter==1.1.1
+jupyter_core==5.8.1
+ipywidgets==8.1.7
+
+# Data Serialization
+pyarrow==21.0.0
+pyyaml==6.0.3