I'm not sure if it is markdown, Joplin or my "issue", but when I use this code:
something
(word with spaces on sides in inline code. It seems it doesn't work here too)
it doesn't protect (in note viewer) the spaces around the word. I use it for finding and replacing some characters in my digitized paper books to have correct formatting in epub files.
I use:
Joplin 1.7.11
Windows 10