diff --git a/tests/test_materialize_searchqa.py b/tests/test_materialize_searchqa.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bbfb2a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_materialize_searchqa.py
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+import json
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+
+from scripts.materialize_searchqa import materialize_searchqa_splits
+
+
+def _write_manifest(root: Path, split_ids: dict[str, list[str]]) -> None:
+    for split, ids in split_ids.items():
+        split_dir = root / split
+        split_dir.mkdir(parents=True)
+        (split_dir / "items.json").write_text(
+            json.dumps([{"id": item_id} for item_id in ids]),
+            encoding="utf-8",
+        )
+
+
+def _row(key: str) -> dict:
+    return {
+        "key": key,
+        "question": f"question {key}",
+        "context": f"context {key}",
+        "answers": [f"answer {key}"],
+        "ignored": "not written",
+    }
+
+
+def test_materialize_searchqa_splits_preserves_manifest_order(tmp_path):
+    manifest_dir = tmp_path / "manifest"
+    output_dir = tmp_path / "out"
+    _write_manifest(manifest_dir, {"train": ["b", "a"], "val": ["c"], "test": ["d"]})
+
+    counts = materialize_searchqa_splits(
+        manifest_dir,
+        output_dir,
+        {"train": [_row("a"), _row("b")], "validation": [_row("c"), _row("d")]},
+        dataset_name="example/searchqa",
+    )
+
+    assert counts == {"train": 2, "val": 1, "test": 1}
+    train_items = json.loads((output_dir / "train" / "items.json").read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+    assert [item["id"] for item in train_items] == ["b", "a"]
+    assert train_items[0] == {
+        "id": "b",
+        "question": "question b",
+        "context": "context b",
+        "answers": ["answer b"],
+    }
+
+    split_manifest = json.loads((output_dir / "split_manifest.json").read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+    assert split_manifest["source_dataset"] == "example/searchqa"
+    assert split_manifest["counts"] == counts
+
+
+def test_materialize_searchqa_splits_fails_on_missing_manifest_id(tmp_path):
+    manifest_dir = tmp_path / "manifest"
+    _write_manifest(manifest_dir, {"train": ["a"], "val": ["missing"], "test": []})
+
+    with pytest.raises(RuntimeError, match="missing"):
+        materialize_searchqa_splits(
+            manifest_dir,
+            tmp_path / "out",
+            {"train": [_row("a")]},
+            dataset_name="example/searchqa",
+        )