While I never participated in FTC, I would presume that the basic principles of engineering notebooks are universal; the notebook should fully document your team’s design process; the ups and downs, why you chose the design you chose, what other options you considered, how you implemented your design, tournaments you went to and how your team performed, programs your team made and how it works, etc.
Regarding exactly how the notebooks are judged, you can reference the contemporary Guide to Judging and Engineering Notebook Rubrics found in the Guide to Judging.
Feel free to reference the various example notebooks found within/outside the forum. Here’s some good ones to start out with:
2654E - Echo (went to worlds and won design in their division last season)
5203G - Gremlin (2025 Vex V5 Excellence Award Winner)
(You can look through their notebook here)
10C (great notebooks and I’m certain they won plenty of designs/excellences I just don’t feel like looking through the many seasons they were in)
Much more that you can look up. Just make sure not to copy them and always design the notebook the way that makes sense to you and your team.
Happy notebooking!
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