diff --git a/ietf/api/tests_views_rpc.py b/ietf/api/tests_views_rpc.py
index 032b4b9495..ece2af1b85 100644
--- a/ietf/api/tests_views_rpc.py
+++ b/ietf/api/tests_views_rpc.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.core.files.base import ContentFile
 from django.db.models import Max
+from django.db.models.functions import Coalesce
 from django.test.utils import override_settings
 from django.urls import reverse as urlreverse
 
@@ -22,7 +23,9 @@ def test_draftviewset_references(self):
         viewname = "ietf.api.purple_api.draft-references"
 
         # non-existent draft
-        bad_id = Document.objects.aggregate(unused_id=Max("id") + 100)["unused_id"]
+        bad_id = Document.objects.aggregate(unused_id=Coalesce(Max("id"), 0) + 100)[
+            "unused_id"
+        ]
         url = urlreverse(viewname, kwargs={"doc_id": bad_id})
         # Without credentials
         r = self.client.get(url)
diff --git a/ietf/utils/test_runner.py b/ietf/utils/test_runner.py
index 1a3d4e5c3d..df8ed1fd61 100644
--- a/ietf/utils/test_runner.py
+++ b/ietf/utils/test_runner.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@
 from django.template.loaders.filesystem import Loader as BaseLoader
 from django.test.runner import DiscoverRunner
 from django.core.management import call_command
-from django.urls import URLResolver # type: ignore
+from django.urls import URLResolver, resolve, Resolver404  # type: ignore
 from django.template.backends.django import DjangoTemplates
 from django.template.backends.django import Template  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
 from django.utils import timezone
@@ -88,6 +88,26 @@
 from mypy_boto3_s3.service_resource import Bucket
 
 
+class UrlCoverageWarning(UserWarning):
+    """Warning category for URL coverage-related warnings"""
+    pass
+
+
+class UninterestingPatternWarning(UrlCoverageWarning):
+    """Warning category for unexpected URL match patterns
+    
+    These are common, caused by tests that hit a URL that is not selected for
+    coverage checking. The warning is in place to help with a putative future 
+    review of whether we're selecting the right patterns to check for coverage. 
+    """
+    pass
+
+
+# Configure warnings for reasonable output quantity
+warnings.simplefilter("once", UrlCoverageWarning)
+warnings.simplefilter("ignore", UninterestingPatternWarning)
+
+
 loaded_templates: set[str] = set()
 visited_urls: set[str] = set()
 test_database_name: Optional[str] = None
@@ -550,21 +570,37 @@ def ignore_pattern(regex, pattern):
                         )
                         or pattern.callback == django.views.static.serve)
 
-            patterns = [(regex, re.compile(regex, re.U), obj) for regex, obj in url_patterns
-                        if not ignore_pattern(regex, obj)]
+            patterns ={
+                regex: obj
+                for regex, obj in url_patterns
+                if not ignore_pattern(regex, obj)
+            }
 
             covered = set()
             for url in visited_urls:
-                for regex, compiled, obj in patterns:
-                    if regex not in covered and compiled.match(url[1:]): # strip leading /
-                        covered.add(regex)
-                        break
+                try:
+                    resolved = resolve(url)  # let Django resolve the URL for us
+                except Resolver404:
+                    warnings.warn(
+                        f"Unable to resolve visited URL {url}", UrlCoverageWarning
+                    )
+                    continue
+                if resolved.route not in patterns:
+                    warnings.warn(
+                        f"WARNING: url resolved to an unexpected pattern (url='{url}', "
+                        f"resolved to r'{resolved.route}'",
+                        UninterestingPatternWarning,
+                    )
+                    continue
+                covered.add(resolved.route)
 
             self.runner.coverage_data["url"] = {
-                "coverage": 1.0*len(covered)/len(patterns),
-                "covered": dict( (k, (o.lookup_str, k in covered)) for k,p,o in patterns ),
+                "coverage": 1.0 * len(covered) / len(patterns),
+                "covered": dict(
+                    (k, (o.lookup_str, k in covered)) for k, o in patterns.items()
+                ),
                 "format": 4,
-                }
+            }
 
             self.report_test_result("url")
         else: