diff --git a/pages/SearchResultsPage.ts b/pages/SearchResultsPage.ts
index e9ab311..5765b6f 100644
--- a/pages/SearchResultsPage.ts
+++ b/pages/SearchResultsPage.ts
@@ -3,11 +3,21 @@ import { expect, Locator, Page } from '@playwright/test';
 export class SearchResultsPage {
   readonly page: Page;
   readonly mainContent: Locator;
+  readonly resultLinks: Locator;
+  readonly noResultsMessage: Locator;
 
   constructor(page: Page) {
-    this.page = page;
-    this.mainContent = page.locator('main, [role="main"], body').first();
-  }
+  this.page = page;
+  this.mainContent = page.locator('main, [role="main"], body').first();
+
+  this.resultLinks = page.locator(
+    'a[href*="/release/"], a[href*="/master/"], a[href*="/artist/"], a[href*="/label/"]'
+  );
+
+  this.noResultsMessage = page.getByText(
+    /no results|nothing found|did not match|try a different search/i
+  );
+}
 
   async expectSearchResultsPageLoaded(query: string): Promise<void> {
     await expect(this.page).toHaveURL(/\/search(\?|\/|$)/);
@@ -35,4 +45,21 @@ export class SearchResultsPage {
     releaseOrMasterResult.click(),
   ]);
 }
+
+async expectGracefulNoResultState(query: string): Promise<void> {
+  await expect(this.page).toHaveURL(/\/search(?:\?|\/|$)/);
+  await expect(this.mainContent).toContainText(query, { timeout: 10000 });
+
+  await expect(this.mainContent).not.toContainText(
+    /server error|something went wrong|application error|internal error/i
+  );
+
+  const resultCount = await this.resultLinks.count();
+  const noResultsMessageCount = await this.noResultsMessage.count();
+
+  expect(
+    resultCount === 0 || noResultsMessageCount > 0,
+    `Expected no result links or a no-results message for query: ${query}`
+  ).toBeTruthy();
+}
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test-data/negative-search-cases.json b/test-data/negative-search-cases.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dda1254
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test-data/negative-search-cases.json
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+[
+  {
+    "description": "unlikely search query",
+    "query": "zzzxxy-discogs-ui-no-results-qa-portfolio-2026"
+  }
+]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/search/negative-search.spec.ts b/tests/search/negative-search.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4d60b26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/search/negative-search.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+import { test } from '@playwright/test';
+import { HomePage } from '../../pages/HomePage';
+import { SearchResultsPage } from '../../pages/SearchResultsPage';
+import negativeSearchCases from '../../test-data/negative-search-cases.json';
+
+type NegativeSearchCase = {
+  description: string;
+  query: string;
+};
+
+test.describe('Discogs negative search', () => {
+  for (const searchCase of negativeSearchCases as NegativeSearchCase[]) {
+    test(`@negative search handles ${searchCase.description} gracefully`, async ({
+      page,
+    }) => {
+      const homePage = new HomePage(page);
+      const searchResultsPage = new SearchResultsPage(page);
+
+      await test.step('Navigate to Discogs homepage', async () => {
+        await homePage.goto();
+        await homePage.expectPageLoaded();
+      });
+
+      await test.step(`Search for unlikely query: ${searchCase.query}`, async () => {
+        await homePage.searchFor(searchCase.query);
+      });
+
+      await test.step('Validate graceful no-result behavior', async () => {
+        await searchResultsPage.expectGracefulNoResultState(searchCase.query);
+      });
+    });
+  }
+});
\ No newline at end of file