ARA-C01 Accounts and Security Practice Question
A Snowflake architect is using the Data Exchange to share data with a partner who does not have a Snowflake account. What is the most appropriate feature to use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often suggest creating a standard user account or a share, forgetting that external partners without existing Snowflake accounts require the specific provisioning of a Reader Account.
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 creation of a Managed (Reader) Account for the partner.
Managed accounts, also known as reader accounts, allow Snowflake customers to share data with parties who do not have their own Snowflake subscription. This feature enables the provider to bear the cost of the consumer's queries, facilitating easy and secure data collaboration without requiring the partner to manage an account.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Direct Data Sharing to the partner's corporate email address.
Why it's wrong here
Direct Data Sharing requires the consumer to have a Snowflake account to receive the share. You cannot share data directly to an email address; the data must be consumed through a Snowflake interface or driver, which necessitates the existence of an account on the platform.
- ✓
The creation of a Managed (Reader) Account for the partner.
Why this is correct
Managed accounts are specifically designed for this scenario, allowing the provider to create a dedicated Snowflake environment for the consumer. The provider manages the account and pays for the compute resources used by the partner, making it an ideal solution for sharing data with external entities.
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FTP export to the partner's secure external storage bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Exporting data via FTP is not a Snowflake feature and involves moving data out of the secure Snowflake environment. This approach loses the benefits of live data sharing, such as real-time updates and integrated security, and introduces additional management overhead for data movement and synchronization.
- ✗
Granting the partner access via a temporary security token.
Why it's wrong here
Snowflake does not provide a mechanism to grant data access to external parties using temporary security tokens without an account structure. Access to data always requires a user identity within a Snowflake account, whether it is a standard account or a provider-managed reader account.
About these practice questions
This ARA-C01 question is part of Courseiva's 209-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.