SNOW-CSA Application Rules, ACL and Notifications Practice Question
A notification is not sending emails to the intended recipients. The notification's 'Who will receive' tab is set to 'Event creator' and the event is triggered by a business rule. However, the email recipient list is empty. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume the notification is inactive or misconfigured, but the real issue is that system accounts lack email addresses, causing the recipient list to be empty despite the notification being active and correctly configured.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The event was created by a system account, not a real user
When a notification's 'Who will receive' tab is set to 'Event creator' and the event is triggered by a business rule, the system resolves the recipient by looking up the user who triggered the event. If the event was created by a system account (e.g., 'system' or 'guest'), that account has no valid email address, resulting in an empty recipient list. This is the most likely cause because the notification is otherwise correctly configured and active.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The notification is inactive
Why it's wrong here
If inactive, no notification would occur at all, not just empty recipient list.
- ✗
The email template is missing the recipient field
Why it's wrong here
Recipients are determined by the notification configuration, not the template.
- ✗
The system property 'glide.email.smtp.port' is set incorrectly
Why it's wrong here
This affects email delivery, not recipient identification.
- ✓
The event was created by a system account, not a real user
Why this is correct
System accounts like 'guest' have no valid email, resulting in empty recipient list.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every SNOW-CSA question from scratch — 504 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SNOW-CSA practice question is part of Courseiva's free ServiceNow certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SNOW-CSA exam.