4. It’s usually preferable if your dependent (target) variable is separate from your independent (output) variable for usability reasons. 5. I’d provide a vect

4. It’s usually preferable if your dependent (target) variable is separate from your independent (output) variable for usability reasons. 5. I’d provide a vector of integers where each integer represents a different class. Encoding is dependent on the underlying algorithm and its implementation. You’d want to provide plenty of flexibility to users. I’d also add that MNIST has an advantage over a dataset like CIFAR because background pixels are zeroed out (i.e. you don’t need to account for varied backgrounds). So you’d probably want to segment your objects.