One of your questions was whether tests should pass regardless of test data. The answer is: only if the expected behavior is still valid.
TDD tests are tied to behavior, not specific inputs.
In your case, hardcoded paths like \\pytest\\nif\\base might become brittle. If someone changes a directory name or adds a symbolic link, your tests might fail unexpectedly. You can mitigate this by either:
Using fixtures or mocks to simulate the file structure,
Or adding setup code to dynamically prepare test directories.
Example with tmp_path (pytest built-in):
def test_result_path_exists(tmp_path):
result_dir = tmp_path / "results"
result_dir.mkdir()
assert result_dir.exists()
This ensures your tests aren’t tied to hardcoded filesystem states, which is vital when test data changes often.
Happy to help 