COF-C03 Multiple Select — 10 Questions

Question 1

Which TWO statements are true regarding the behavior and management of External Tables in Snowflake?

Accepted Answer

External tables can be manually refreshed or configured to refresh automatically using cloud notifications.. External tables allow Snowflake to query data stored in external cloud storage without first importing it into Snowflake's proprietary storage format. They are read-only and rely on metadata that points to the files. To maintain performance and accuracy, they can be partitioned based on the folder structure and require metadata refreshes to detect new or removed files in the cloud bucket.

Answer

External tables support the same performance optimizations as native tables, including clustering keys.

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Data in external tables can be updated directly using standard DML commands like UPDATE or DELETE.

Answer

External tables store a version of the data in Snowflake's internal storage for faster access.

Question 2

A provider is preparing to share data with a consumer via a direct share. The provider wants to ensure that the consumer can access the data but cannot see the underlying table structure or any other objects in the database. Which two actions should the provider take? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Ensure the share contains only the secure view and no other objects.. To share data while hiding the underlying structure, the provider should create a secure view and add it to the share, and ensure the share contains only that view. Secure views prevent consumers from seeing the base table definitions, and limiting the share to the view ensures no other objects are exposed. Other options involve direct table access or ineffective grants that do not meet the security requirements.

Answer

Grant USAGE on the database to the consumer's role.

Answer

Create a database role and grant it to the consumer.

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Add the table directly to the share and grant SELECT on the table to the consumer.

Question 3

Which TWO of the following tasks are performed by the Snowflake Cloud Services layer?

Accepted Answer

Managing user authentication and access control for the account.. The Cloud Services layer acts as the 'brain' of Snowflake, managing the overall state of the system and coordinating activities. It handles tasks that do not require heavy computational power, such as security, metadata management, and query optimization. By centralizing these functions, Snowflake ensures consistent governance and performance across all virtual warehouses and storage components.

Answer

Executing the actual DML operations and data processing tasks.

Answer

Storing the raw data files in micro-partitions within cloud storage.

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Providing the physical hardware resources for the cloud environment.

Question 4

When considering the implementation of a clustering key on a large table, which TWO scenarios indicate that clustering will provide the most significant performance benefit?

Accepted Answer

Queries against the table typically filter on a specific dimension column.. Clustering is most effective for large tables (typically multi-terabyte) where query performance has degraded over time due to poor data grouping. It benefits queries that use selective filters on specific columns, as it allows the optimizer to skip a high percentage of micro-partitions that do not contain relevant data.

Answer

The table is frequently updated with small DML operations.

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The table size is less than 50 GB and fits in the local cache.

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The table is used exclusively for full table scans and exports.

Question 5

A provider wants to share data with a consumer using a Direct Share. Which two statements accurately describe the consumer's experience after the share is mounted? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

The consumer can view the share's objects without any additional storage cost for the shared data.. With Direct Sharing, the consumer mounts a read-only database and queries it using their own compute. Storage remains with the provider, so the consumer incurs no storage cost for the shared data. The consumer cannot modify shared objects or add objects inside the shared database, which distinguishes sharing from copying data.

Answer

The consumer can modify the shared data directly because they own the mounted database.

Answer

The consumer must copy the shared data into their own tables before querying it.

Answer

The consumer can create their own tables in the same schema as the shared objects.

Question 6

A developer is building a Change Data Capture (CDC) pipeline using Snowflake. Which TWO features are required to ensure that only new or modified data is processed and that the processing logic runs automatically whenever data arrives?

Accepted Answer

Streams. Modern data pipelines in Snowflake rely on the synergy between Streams and Tasks to achieve efficient CDC. Streams provide the ability to track changes at the row level without manual versioning, while Tasks provide the scheduling and execution framework. Together, they allow for automated, incremental processing that reduces latency and optimizes resource consumption.

Answer

External Tables

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Stored Procedures

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Dynamic Tables

Question 7

A Snowflake administrator is configuring a new virtual warehouse to support a data science team that runs occasional, complex queries on large datasets. The team requires fast performance and minimal latency. Which TWO warehouse configuration settings should the administrator consider to optimize performance for this workload? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Enable the Query Acceleration Service (QAS) for the warehouse.. For occasional complex queries on large datasets, increasing warehouse size provides more compute power for faster processing. Additionally, enabling the Query Acceleration Service (QAS) can offload eligible query parts to shared resources, further improving performance. Multi-cluster warehouses target concurrency, not single-query speed, and AUTO_SUSPEND settings affect cost, not performance.

Answer

Configure the warehouse to use a larger number of clusters with scaling policy set to ECONOMY.

Answer

Enable multi-cluster warehouse with a minimum cluster count of 2.

Answer

Set AUTO_SUSPEND to a low value (e.g., 60 seconds) to minimize idle costs.

Question 8

A platform team is evaluating Snowflake's Time Travel feature for a production database. They need to understand which capabilities Time Travel provides for recovering from accidental data changes and for querying historical data. (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Restore a dropped table, schema, or database within the retention period using UNDROP or by cloning from a historical point.. Time Travel provides two core capabilities: querying data as it existed at a past point using AT or BEFORE, and recovering dropped or modified objects within the retention period through UNDROP or historical cloning. Both are directly supported by the feature and are commonly used for auditing and accidental-change recovery, while failover and indefinite retention are handled by other mechanisms.

Answer

Encrypt historical data with a separate customer-managed key that is distinct from the key used for current data.

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Automatically fail over read and write operations to a secondary account in a different region without data loss.

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Permanently retain all historical versions of every table indefinitely without any retention period configuration.

Question 9

A data engineer is configuring a Snowflake storage integration to allow Snowflake to access an external S3 bucket. The engineer needs to ensure that the integration has the necessary permissions to read and write data. Which two actions must the engineer perform? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Grant the IAM role permissions to access the S3 bucket, such as s3:GetObject, s3:PutObject, s3:ListBucket, and s3:GetBucketLocation.. To configure a storage integration for S3, you must create an IAM role in AWS that trusts Snowflake's AWS account and has the necessary S3 permissions. These two actions are essential for Snowflake to assume the role and access the bucket. Other options are either insecure or optional. The integration uses temporary credentials, so storing access keys is not needed.

Answer

Set the STORAGE_ALLOWED_LOCATIONS parameter in the storage integration to restrict access to specific S3 paths.

Answer

Store AWS access keys and secret keys in the storage integration definition for authentication.

Answer

Configure the S3 bucket policy to allow public access so Snowflake can read the data.

Question 10

A data engineer is configuring a Snowpipe to automatically ingest files as they arrive in an external stage. They need to set up event notifications from the cloud provider to Snowflake. Which two components are required to enable this automated ingestion? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

A storage integration object in Snowflake. To enable automated Snowpipe ingestion from an external stage, two key Snowflake objects are required: a storage integration to securely access the external stage, and a notification integration to receive event notifications from the cloud provider. The storage integration provides the necessary permissions, while the notification integration allows Snowpipe to be triggered by events. Other components like file formats or tasks are not required for the event notification setup.

Answer

A named file format object

Answer

A task to periodically check for new files

Answer

An external function to process the notifications