def METHOD_NAME(cls, filename: str) -> List[str]:
    """
    Get all the requirements in `filename` as a list of strings.
    """
    if os.path.exists(filename):
        with open(filename, "r", encoding="utf-8") as fd:
            requirements_txt_content = fd.read()
            req_lines = [x.strip() for x in requirements_txt_content.split("\n") if len(x.strip()) > 0]
            req_lines = cls._remove_comments(req_lines)
            req_lines = cls._remove_line_continuations(req_lines)
            return list(req_lines)
    else:
        return []