If I understand what you're saying, you want to give priority to the most-nested depth. So '/folder1/folder2/folder3/folder4/folder5
is included.
I would get your data into a lookup table like this:
lookup = {'/folder1/folder2/folder3/folder4':'include','/folder1/folder2':'exclude','/folder1':'include'}
Then just loop over your query in reverse order, stripping off one directory at a time until you get a match:
folder = '/folder1/folder2/folder3/folder4/folder5'.split('/')
for i in reversed(range(len(folder) + 1)):
check = '/'.join(folder[:i])
if lookup.get(check):
print('{}: {}'.format(check,lookup.get(check)))
break
#/folder1/folder2/folder3/folder4: include