ARA-C01 Snowflake Architecture Practice Question
Exhibit
ALTER WAREHOUSE analytics_wh SET WAREHOUSE_SIZE = 'LARGE' MAX_CLUSTER_COUNT = 5 MIN_CLUSTER_COUNT = 2 SCALING_POLICY = 'ECONOMY' AUTO_SUSPEND = 300;
Refer to the exhibit. Based on the configuration provided, how will the multi-cluster warehouse behave when the query load increases?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers often confuse Economy and Standard multi-cluster warehouse policies, incorrectly believing the Economy policy spins up additional clusters immediately when queues begin to form.
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
✓
A second cluster will only start if the system estimates it will remain busy for 6 minutes.
The Economy scaling policy is designed to conserve credits by only starting a new cluster if Snowflake estimates there is enough concurrent load to keep the new cluster busy for at least six minutes. This contrasts with the Standard policy, which starts clusters immediately to minimize queuing, making Economy better for workloads where latency is less critical.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
A new cluster will start immediately as soon as a single query is queued.
Why it's wrong here
This behavior describes the 'Standard' scaling policy. With the 'Economy' policy, Snowflake is more conservative and will wait until it determines that the system has enough sustained load to justify the cost of an additional cluster, prioritising credit savings over the immediate reduction of query queuing time.
- ✗
The warehouse will scale up to an X-Large size to handle the increased load.
Why it's wrong here
The 'WAREHOUSE_SIZE' parameter is static in this command and does not change automatically based on load. To change the size (vertical scaling), a manual ALTER WAREHOUSE command or a third-party tool is required. Multi-cluster settings only control horizontal scaling, which adds or removes clusters of the same size.
- ✓
A second cluster will only start if the system estimates it will remain busy for 6 minutes.
Why this is correct
The 'Economy' scaling policy specifically waits to spin up additional clusters until there is a consistent workload. It uses a heuristic to ensure that the cluster, once started, will be utilized effectively for at least six minutes, thereby avoiding the costs of frequently starting and stopping clusters for transient spikes.
- ✗
All five clusters will start simultaneously when the first query is submitted to the warehouse.
Why it's wrong here
Snowflake's multi-cluster warehouses scale dynamically between the MIN_CLUSTER_COUNT and MAX_CLUSTER_COUNT. They do not start all clusters at once unless the MIN and MAX are set to the same value. In this configuration, it starts with two clusters and adds more only as the workload demands according to the policy.
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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.