diff --git a/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/inv_consumer.cc b/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/inv_consumer.cc
index b827cd692c91..046812afa96c 100644
--- a/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/inv_consumer.cc
+++ b/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/inv_consumer.cc
@@ -21,9 +21,11 @@
 #include <seastar/core/file.hh>
 #include <seastar/core/fstream.hh>
 #include <seastar/core/seastar.hh>
+#include <seastar/coroutine/as_future.hh>
 
 #include <re2/re2.h>
 
+#include <exception>
 #include <ranges>
 
 namespace ranges = std::ranges;
@@ -32,9 +34,18 @@ namespace views = std::views;
 namespace {
 // hash-string/ns/tp/partition_rev/.*
 const RE2 path_expr{"^[[:xdigit:]]+/(.*?)/(.*?)/(\\d+)_\\d+/.*?"};
+
+// Holds hashes for a given NTP in memory before they will be flushed to disk.
+// One of these structures is held per NTP in a map keyed by the NTP itself.
 struct flush_entry {
     model::ntp ntp;
+    // The vector of hashes which will be written to disk in the file_name on
+    // next flush.
     fragmented_vector<uint64_t> hashes;
+    // The file to which hashes will be written. The file name is incremented on
+    // each flush, so each file name contains some hashes, and we may end up
+    // with multiple files per NTP. The hash loader will read all the files and
+    // collect the hashes together.
     uint64_t file_name;
 };
 
@@ -213,15 +224,11 @@ ss::future<> inventory_consumer::write_hashes_to_file(
     vlog(cst_log.trace, "Writing {} hashe(s) to disk", hashes.size());
     std::exception_ptr ep;
     auto stream = co_await ss::make_file_output_stream(f);
-    try {
-        co_await write_hashes_to_file(stream, std::move(hashes));
-    } catch (...) {
-        ep = std::current_exception();
-    }
-
+    auto res = co_await ss::coroutine::as_future(
+      write_hashes_to_file(stream, std::move(hashes)));
     co_await stream.close();
-    if (ep) {
-        std::rethrow_exception(ep);
+    if (res.failed()) {
+        std::rethrow_exception(res.get_exception());
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/inv_consumer.h b/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/inv_consumer.h
index ecc91ead709c..86780a33b473 100644
--- a/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/inv_consumer.h
+++ b/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/inv_consumer.h
@@ -68,7 +68,8 @@ class inventory_consumer {
     ss::future<> process_paths(fragmented_vector<ss::sstring> paths);
 
     // Checks if the path belongs to one of the NTPs whose leadership belongs to
-    // this node. If so, the path is hashed and added to the `_path_hashes` map.
+    // this node. If so, the path is hashed and added to current NTP flush
+    // states, and will be written to disk on the next flush operation.
     void process_path(ss::sstring path);
 
     // Writes the largest hash vectors to disk. The vectors are written in files
@@ -111,7 +112,7 @@ class inventory_consumer {
     // performed to free up memory.
     size_t _max_hash_size_in_memory;
 
-    // Total size of path hashes held in memory
+    // Total size in bytes of path hashes held in memory
     size_t _total_size{};
 
     size_t _num_flushes{};
diff --git a/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/ntp_hashes.cc b/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/ntp_hashes.cc
index 42203e5d5b3a..454060bac9e9 100644
--- a/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/ntp_hashes.cc
+++ b/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/ntp_hashes.cc
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 
 #include "cloud_storage/inventory/ntp_hashes.h"
 
+#include "base/likely.h"
 #include "cloud_storage/logger.h"
 #include "container/fragmented_vector.h"
 #include "hashing/xx.h"
@@ -94,10 +95,9 @@ ss::future<> ntp_path_hashes::load_hashes(ss::input_stream<char>& stream) {
         vlog(_ctxlog.trace, "read {} path hashes from disk", hashes.size());
 
         for (auto hash : hashes) {
-            if (unlikely(_path_hashes.contains(hash))) {
+            auto [_, inserted] = _path_hashes.insert(hash);
+            if (unlikely(!inserted)) {
                 _possible_collisions.insert(hash);
-            } else {
-                _path_hashes.insert(hash);
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/tests/inv_consumer_tests.cc b/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/tests/inv_consumer_tests.cc
index 80db3c85973e..4be053191e0e 100644
--- a/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/tests/inv_consumer_tests.cc
+++ b/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/tests/inv_consumer_tests.cc
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ constexpr auto compressed
 
 } // namespace
 
-TEST(ParseNTPFromPath, Consumer) {
+TEST(Consumer, ParseNTPFromPath) {
     using p = std::pair<std::string_view, std::optional<model::ntp>>;
     std::vector<p> test_data{
       {"a0a6eeb8/kafka/topic-x/999_24/178-188-1574137-1-v1.log.1",
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ TEST(ParseNTPFromPath, Consumer) {
     }
 }
 
-TEST(ParseCSV, Consumer) {
+TEST(Consumer, ParseCSV) {
     inventory_consumer c{"", {}, 0};
     using p = std::pair<const char*, std::vector<ss::sstring>>;
     std::vector<p> test_data{
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ TEST(ParseCSV, Consumer) {
     }
 }
 
-TEST(LargeNumberOfPaths, Consumer) {
+TEST(Consumer, LargeNumberOfPaths) {
     temporary_dir t{"test_inv_consumer"};
     const auto p0 = make_ntp("kafka", "topic-A", 110);
 
@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@ TEST(LargeNumberOfPaths, Consumer) {
     }
 }
 
-TEST(WriteThenReadHashes, Consumer) {
+TEST(Consumer, WriteThenReadHashes) {
     temporary_dir t{"test_inv_consumer"};
 
     const auto p0 = make_ntp("kafka", "partagas", 0);
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ TEST(WriteThenReadHashes, Consumer) {
     }
 }
 
-TEST(CollisionDetection, Consumer) {
+TEST(Consumer, CollisionDetection) {
     temporary_dir t{"test_inv_consumer"};
     const auto p0 = make_ntp("kafka", "topic-A", 110);
 
@@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ TEST(CollisionDetection, Consumer) {
     h.stop().get();
 }
 
-TEST(ConsumeMultipleStreams, Consumer) {
+TEST(Consumer, ConsumeMultipleStreams) {
     temporary_dir t{"test_inv_consumer"};
     const auto p0 = make_ntp("kafka", "partagas", 0);
 
diff --git a/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/tests/report_parser_tests.cc b/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/tests/report_parser_tests.cc
index 82de3f52956c..a1f4aa2cd0e5 100644
--- a/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/tests/report_parser_tests.cc
+++ b/src/v/cloud_storage/inventory/tests/report_parser_tests.cc
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ report_parser make_parser(
 }
 } // namespace
 
-TEST(ParseReport, Parser) {
+TEST(Parser, ParseReport) {
     auto input = std::vector<ss::sstring>{"foo", "bar", "x"};
     for (const auto compression :
          {is_gzip_compressed::no, is_gzip_compressed::yes}) {
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ TEST(ParseReport, Parser) {
     }
 }
 
-TEST(ParseEmptyString, Parser) {
+TEST(Parser, ParseEmptyString) {
     std::string input{};
     for (const auto compression :
          {is_gzip_compressed::no, is_gzip_compressed::yes}) {
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ TEST(ParseEmptyString, Parser) {
     }
 }
 
-TEST(ParseTrailingNewLine, Parser) {
+TEST(Parser, ParseTrailingNewLine) {
     std::string input{"foobar\n"};
     std::vector<ss::sstring> expected{"foobar"};
     for (const auto compression :
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ TEST(ParseTrailingNewLine, Parser) {
     }
 }
 
-TEST(ParseLargePayloadWithSmallChunkSize, Parser) {
+TEST(Parser, ParseLargePayloadWithSmallChunkSize) {
     std::vector<ss::sstring> input;
     input.reserve(1024);
     for (auto i = 0; i < 1024; ++i) {
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ TEST(ParseLargePayloadWithSmallChunkSize, Parser) {
     }
 }
 
-TEST(ParseGzippedFile, Parser) {
+TEST(Parser, ParseGzippedFile) {
     // This is the base64 encoding of a gzipped file containing the strings 1, 2
     // and 3, one per line.
     constexpr auto gzipped_data
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ TEST(ParseGzippedFile, Parser) {
     EXPECT_EQ(collect(p), (std::vector<ss::sstring>{"1", "2", "3"}));
 }
 
-TEST(BatchSizeControlledByChunkSize, Parser) {
+TEST(Parser, BatchSizeControlledByChunkSize) {
     size_t chunk_size{4096};
 
     std::vector<ss::sstring> input;
diff --git a/src/v/compression/tests/gzip_stream_decompression_tests.cc b/src/v/compression/tests/gzip_stream_decompression_tests.cc
index 704bf013fcf3..630f1ae7eb93 100644
--- a/src/v/compression/tests/gzip_stream_decompression_tests.cc
+++ b/src/v/compression/tests/gzip_stream_decompression_tests.cc
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 #include "bytes/iostream.h"
 #include "compression/gzip_stream_decompression.h"
 #include "compression/internal/gzip_compressor.h"
+#include "test_utils/randoms.h"
 #include "utils/base64.h"
 
 #include <seastar/core/iostream.hh>
@@ -24,9 +25,8 @@ using namespace compression;
 namespace {
 
 ss::input_stream<char> make_compressed_stream(ss::sstring s) {
-    iobuf b;
-    b.append(s.data(), s.size());
-    return make_iobuf_input_stream(internal::gzip_compressor::compress(b));
+    return make_iobuf_input_stream(
+      internal::gzip_compressor::compress(iobuf::from(s)));
 }
 
 ss::sstring consume(gzip_stream_decompressor& gsd) {
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@ ss::sstring consume(gzip_stream_decompressor& gsd) {
 
 } // namespace
 
-TEST(SmallChunkSize, GzStrm) {
-    ss::sstring test_string(100000, 'a');
+TEST(GzStrm, SmallChunkSize) {
+    auto test_string = tests::random_named_string<ss::sstring>(100000);
     gzip_stream_decompressor gsd{make_compressed_stream(test_string), 5};
     gsd.reset();
     auto output = consume(gsd);
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ TEST(SmallChunkSize, GzStrm) {
     gsd.stop().get();
 }
 
-TEST(SmallPayloadLargeChunkSize, GzStrm) {
+TEST(GzStrm, SmallPayloadLargeChunkSize) {
     ss::sstring test_string("xyz");
     gzip_stream_decompressor gsd{make_compressed_stream(test_string), 4096};
     gsd.reset();
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ TEST(SmallPayloadLargeChunkSize, GzStrm) {
     gsd.stop().get();
 }
 
-TEST(EmptyString, GzStrm) {
+TEST(GzStrm, EmptyString) {
     ss::sstring test_string;
     gzip_stream_decompressor gsd{make_compressed_stream(test_string), 4096};
     gsd.reset();
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ TEST(EmptyString, GzStrm) {
     gsd.stop().get();
 }
 
-TEST(NonStandardCompressionMethod, GzStrm) {
+TEST(GzStrm, NonStandardCompressionMethod) {
     // Tests payload compressed with gzip -9
     const auto payload
       = "H4sICG5pgmYCA21vYnktZGlja2FoAFVXwY7kthG9N9D/"