DEA-C02 Storage and Data Protection Practice Question
A data engineer is designing a recovery strategy for a critical permanent table FACT_SALES in an Enterprise Edition account. The team wants the ability to restore the table to any point within the last 60 days and also wants protection against a catastrophic failure that corrupts the data. Which statement correctly describes the available recovery windows?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is treating Time Travel and Fail-safe as overlapping protections, when Fail-safe actually begins only after the Time Travel window has elapsed.
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
✓
Setting DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS to 60 gives 60 days of Time Travel plus 7 days of Fail-safe, for a total of 67 days of recoverability.
Permanent tables in Enterprise Edition can be configured up to 90 days of Time Travel, and Fail-safe adds a fixed seven-day window after Time Travel expires. A 60-day retention therefore yields 60 days of self-service recovery plus 7 days of Support-assisted recovery. Fail-safe does not overlap Time Travel, transient tables are capped at one day, and 30 is the default rather than the maximum.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Setting DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS to 60 gives 60 days of Time Travel, and Fail-safe adds no extra window because it overlaps Time Travel.
Why it's wrong here
Fail-safe does not overlap Time Travel; it begins after Time Travel expires. Snowflake documentation describes Fail-safe as a non-configurable 7-day period following the Time Travel retention window for permanent tables. Claiming the two windows overlap would understate the total recoverability and misrepresent how Snowflake sequences the retention periods. Transient tables are the ones that have no Fail-safe at all, not permanent tables.
- ✗
The maximum Time Travel for a permanent table is 30 days, so 60 days is not achievable and the setting will fail.
Why it's wrong here
The 90-day maximum applies to permanent tables in Enterprise Edition and higher. The 30-day figure is the default value, not the maximum, and it applies to permanent tables in Standard Edition. Because the account is Enterprise Edition, a 60-day retention is within range and the ALTER will succeed. Stating the maximum is 30 days confuses the default with the ceiling.
- ✗
Setting DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS to 60 requires converting the table to a transient table to extend beyond 1 day.
Why it's wrong here
Transient tables are capped at one day of Time Travel, so converting to transient would shorten, not extend, the recovery window. The 60-day retention is available to permanent tables directly through the retention parameter, with no need to change table kind. Converting would also change Fail-safe eligibility, removing the seven-day protection the team wants for catastrophic failures.
- ✓
Setting DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS to 60 gives 60 days of Time Travel plus 7 days of Fail-safe, for a total of 67 days of recoverability.
Why this is correct
A permanent table in Enterprise Edition supports up to 90 days of Time Travel, so 60 is valid. Time Travel and Fail-safe are sequential windows: after the Time Travel period expires, Snowflake retains the data for an additional 7 days of Fail-safe, which is only accessible through Snowflake Support. The total recoverability is therefore 60 days of self-service Time Travel followed by 7 days of Fail-safe.
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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
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