Which Markdown features do the samples use?

Headings, emphasis, ordered and unordered lists, links, a pipe table, a fenced code block and a block quote.

What is the MIME type of a Markdown file?

The MIME type is text/markdown. The file extension is .md.

Is a sample Markdown file the same as a dummy or example Markdown file?

Yes. Sample, test, dummy and example Markdown files are different names for the same thing: a Markdown file with known contents that stands in for a real one. Any file on this page will do wherever a tutorial or a test plan asks for a dummy Markdown file.

Free Markdown sample files

Lightweight markup that reads well as plain text and converts to HTML. Download valid Markdown test files in 4 exact sizes, from 1 KB to 1 MB, each with a checksum.

Extension: .md
MIME type: text/markdown
Kind: Text
Category: Documents

Markdown files by size

Every file below is a valid Markdown file of exactly the stated size. Open a file's page for its checksum and contents, and to preview it in your browser before downloading.

Markdown sample files by size
File	Size	Contents	Download
1 KB Markdown samplesample-md-1kb.md	1 KB1,024 bytes	Sections: 1	Download Markdown
10 KB Markdown samplesample-md-10kb.md	10 KB10,240 bytes	Sections: 21	Download Markdown
100 KB Markdown samplesample-md-100kb.md	100 KB102,400 bytes	Sections: 221	Download Markdown
1 MB Markdown samplesample-md-1mb.md	1 MB1,048,576 bytes	Sections: 2,271	Download Markdown

What is a Markdown file?

Markdown marks up text with punctuation: a # starts a heading, asterisks add emphasis and a hyphen starts a list item. It is the standard format for README files, documentation and many content systems.

There are several dialects. CommonMark is the strict specification most tools follow, and GitHub Flavored Markdown adds tables, task lists and strikethrough.

How to recognise a Markdown file

No signature bytes. Markdown files are identified by parsing their content.

Extension	.md
MIME type	text/markdown
Specification	CommonMark; GitHub Flavored Markdown adds extensions
Extensions	.md and .markdown
Encoding	UTF-8
Output	Usually rendered to HTML

What to test for

These are the behaviours that most often go wrong when software handles Markdown files.

Markdown may contain raw HTML, so anything that renders user-supplied Markdown needs an HTML sanitiser.
Tables are an extension rather than part of CommonMark, so renderers differ on whether they appear.

Strengths of Markdown

Readable as plain text even before it is rendered.
Works well with version control: changes show up as clean line differences.

Limitations of Markdown

Several dialects exist, and tables and other extensions are not portable between them.
No standard way to express layout, so complex documents need another format.

Typical uses of Markdown test files

Testing Markdown renderers and editors
Checking sanitisation of rendered HTML
Testing documentation pipelines

Software that opens Markdown

GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket
VS Code, Obsidian and Typora
Static site generators
Pandoc and markdown-it libraries

Specifications

Markdown sample files: questions

Which Markdown features do the samples use?: Headings, emphasis, ordered and unordered lists, links, a pipe table, a fenced code block and a block quote.
What is the MIME type of a Markdown file?: The MIME type is text/markdown. The file extension is .md.
Is a sample Markdown file the same as a dummy or example Markdown file?: Yes. Sample, test, dummy and example Markdown files are different names for the same thing: a Markdown file with known contents that stands in for a real one. Any file on this page will do wherever a tutorial or a test plan asks for a dummy Markdown file.