equals is not comparing string representation of the object, so I think an extra space printed in the console is not the reason why the assert is failing

As far as I can see, the two are exactly the same. IntelliJ’s little link to show you the differences only has that ending space as the difference.

While debugging, when I get to the breakpoint on

expected.equals(actual)

, and I compare the string representation of both, they are identical according to IntelliJ.

Figured it out. I had a type issue somewhere. Downside to using Any, but maybe I’ll change that later. Thanks again!