ARA-C01 Snowflake Architecture Practice Question
A healthcare organization needs to share patient data with external research partners without copying the data. The partners use their own Snowflake accounts and require read-only access to a specific subset of tables. Which Snowflake feature should the architect use to meet these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that secure views alone can be shared across accounts; they must be included in a share to be accessible externally.
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
✓
Use Snowflake Data Sharing to create a share and grant access to the partners' accounts.
Snowflake Data Sharing enables secure, governed access to data across Snowflake accounts without copying. By creating a share and granting access to the partners' accounts, the healthcare organization can provide read-only access to specific tables. This approach ensures data remains in the provider's account, reducing risk and eliminating data duplication.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create a secure view and grant SELECT privileges to the partners' roles.
Why it's wrong here
Secure views hide the underlying data and logic, but granting SELECT to external roles requires the partners to have roles in the same Snowflake account. This does not enable cross-account sharing without data copying. Secure views are useful for internal data protection but do not facilitate external sharing across accounts.
- ✓
Use Snowflake Data Sharing to create a share and grant access to the partners' accounts.
Why this is correct
Snowflake Data Sharing allows sharing data across accounts without copying. The provider creates a share, adds the specific tables or secure views, and grants access to the consumer accounts. Consumers can then create databases from the share and query the data with read-only access. This meets the requirement for external sharing without data duplication.
- ✗
Export the data to an external stage and provide the partners with credentials.
Why it's wrong here
Exporting data to an external stage creates a copy of the data outside Snowflake, which violates the no-copy requirement and introduces security risks. Partners would need to manage their own ingestion, and data would not be live. This approach is inefficient and does not leverage Snowflake's native sharing capabilities.
- ✗
Set up a Snowflake reader account for each partner and grant access to the tables.
Why it's wrong here
Reader accounts allow sharing with non-Snowflake customers, but the scenario specifies that partners use their own Snowflake accounts. Reader accounts are managed by the provider and incur additional costs. While they enable sharing, they are unnecessary when the partners already have Snowflake accounts, and they do not provide the same seamless experience as native data sharing.
About these practice questions
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Snowflake exam blueprint
This ARA-C01 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Snowflake 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 ARA-C01 exam.