Unable to configure Intellij Ultimate Web App deployment correctly

I'm trying to build a simple web app based on JSP and Servlets in IntelliJ, using Tomcat 9. But I'm having trouble linking the servlet and jsp files from localhost:8080.

The issue is, in IntelliJ, the normal way is to deploy your  "artifact"  which then compiles into a war/war:exploded, which is then run on the server (tomcat).

So, the root URL becomes localhost:8080/app_war_exploded instead of just localhost:8080. In this scenario, when I try to redirect to another servlet or JSP from the code, like so -

  response.sendRedirect("/todo.do");

This makes a GET request to localhost:8080/todo.do, which consequently throws a 404 error.

Instead, if I go to the browser and manually enter localhost:8080/app_war_exploded/todo.do, it works fine.

I posted a question on StackOverflow with more details, but no response there yet.

Would appreciate any help.