R Markdown Exercises: 25 Practice Problems

Twenty-five practice problems on R Markdown: chunks, output formats, parameterised reports, tables, references, knitr options. Solutions hidden.

By Selva Prabhakaran · Published May 11, 2026 · Last updated May 11, 2026

library(rmarkdown)
library(knitr)

Exercise 1: Minimal Rmd

Difficulty: Beginner. YAML + body that renders to HTML.

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```yaml

---

title: "Demo"

output: html_document

---

# Hello

Some text.

```

Exercise 2: PDF output

Difficulty: Intermediate.

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```yaml

output: pdf_document

```

Exercise 3: Word output

Difficulty: Beginner.

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```yaml

output: word_document

```

Exercise 4: Multiple outputs

Difficulty: Intermediate.

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```yaml

output:

html_document: default

pdf_document: default

```

Exercise 5: Code chunk

Difficulty: Beginner.

mean(mtcars$mpg)

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A code chunk with {r} runs and shows code + output.

Exercise 6: Chunk options echo=FALSE

Difficulty: Intermediate.

plot(mtcars$wt, mtcars$mpg)

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Hides code; shows output. Useful for narrative-heavy reports.

Exercise 7: Chunk options message=FALSE

Difficulty: Intermediate.

library(dplyr)

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Suppresses package-load messages and warnings.

Exercise 8: Cache=TRUE

Difficulty: Intermediate.

slow_thing <- Sys.sleep(2)

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Saves chunk results so re-runs are fast.

Exercise 9: Inline R

Difficulty: Intermediate.

The mean MPG is `r mean(mtcars$mpg)`.

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Backtick-r-space inserts an R expression result inline.

Exercise 10: knitr::kable for tables

Difficulty: Intermediate.

knitr::kable(head(mtcars))

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Renders a basic table. For richer styling: kableExtra, gt, flextable.

Exercise 11: Figure caption

Difficulty: Intermediate.

plot(mtcars$wt, mtcars$mpg)

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fig.cap adds a caption below the rendered figure.

Exercise 12: Figure size

Difficulty: Intermediate.

plot(1:10)

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Inches by default. dpi controls resolution.

Exercise 13: Global options with knitr::opts_chunk

Difficulty: Advanced.

knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = FALSE, warning = FALSE)

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Sets defaults for ALL chunks. Override per chunk as needed.

Exercise 14: Parameterised report

Difficulty: Advanced.

---
title: "Report"
output: html_document
params:
  region: US
  year: 2024
---

Show solution

Access via params$region. Render with rmarkdown::render(..., params = list(...)).

Exercise 15: TOC

Difficulty: Intermediate.

output:
  html_document:
    toc: true
    toc_depth: 2

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Auto table-of-contents from headings.

Exercise 16: Theme

Difficulty: Intermediate.

output:
  html_document:
    theme: cosmo

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Built-in Bootswatch themes: cosmo, flatly, journal, etc.

Exercise 17: Code folding

Difficulty: Intermediate.

output:
  html_document:
    code_folding: hide

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User can show/hide code blocks. Options: none, show, hide.

Exercise 18: Tabsets

Difficulty: Advanced.

## Demo {.tabset}

### Tab A
content A

### Tab B
content B

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The {.tabset} class on a parent header turns child sections into tabs.

Exercise 19: Math equation

Difficulty: Beginner.

$$E = mc^2$$

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Double-dollar for display; single-dollar for inline. Renders via MathJax.

Exercise 20: Bibliography

Difficulty: Advanced.

output: html_document
bibliography: refs.bib

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Cite with [@key]. Generate refs section automatically.

Exercise 21: Render programmatically

Difficulty: Intermediate.

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rmarkdown::render("report.Rmd", output_format = "html_document")

Exercise 22: Custom output filename

Difficulty: Intermediate.

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rmarkdown::render("report.Rmd", output_file = "out_2024.html")

Exercise 23: Render with parameters

Difficulty: Advanced.

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rmarkdown::render("report.Rmd", params = list(region = "EU", year = 2024))

Exercise 24: Loop over many parameters

Difficulty: Advanced.

Show solution

for (r in c("US","EU","ASIA")) {
  rmarkdown::render("report.Rmd",
                    output_file = paste0("report_", r, ".html"),
                    params = list(region = r))
}

Exercise 25: Quarto equivalent

Difficulty: Intermediate.

---
title: "Quarto"
format: html
---

Show solution

Quarto is the modern successor. quarto render report.qmd from terminal. Mostly compatible Rmd syntax.

What to do next

Shiny-Exercises (shipped), interactive reports.
ggplot2-Exercises (shipped), visuals inside reports.