C# – Asserting two objects are equal in unit tests

You’ve got two different Board instances, so your call to Assert.AreEqual will fail. Even if their entire contents appear to be the same, you’re comparing references, not the underlying values.

You have to specify what makes two Board instances equal.

You can do it in your test:

Assert.AreEqual(expected.Rows.Count, actual.Rows.Count);
Assert.AreEqual(expected.Rows[0].Cells[0], actual.Rows[0].Cells[0]);

// Lots more tests of equality...

Or you can do it in your classes: (note I wrote this on-the-fly – you’ll want to adjust this)

public class Board
{
    public List<Row> Rows = new List<Row>();

    public override bool Equals(object obj)
    {
        var board = obj as Board;

        if (board == null)
            return false;

        if (board.Rows.Count != Rows.Count)
            return false;

        return !board.Rows.Where((t, i) => !t.Equals(Rows[i])).Any();
    }

    public override int GetHashCode()
    {
        // determine what's appropriate to return here - a unique board id may be appropriate if available
    }
}

public class Row
{
    public List<int> Cells = new List<int>(); 

    public override bool Equals(object obj)
    {
        var row = obj as Row;

        if (row == null)
            return false;

        if (row.Cells.Count != Cells.Count)
            return false;

        if (row.Cells.Except(Cells).Any())
            return false;

        return true;
    }

    public override int GetHashCode()
    {
        // determine what's appropriate to return here - a unique row id may be appropriate if available
    }
}