DEA-C02 Storage and Data Protection Practice Question
A data engineer is using Snowflake's Time Travel feature to recover a table that was dropped 2 days ago. The table was a permanent table with DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS set to 1. The engineer attempts to use UNDROP TABLE but receives an error. What is the most likely reason for the failure?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse Time Travel recovery with Fail-safe recovery, assuming UNDROP works during Fail-safe.
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 table's Time Travel retention period has expired, and the table is now in Fail-safe.
A permanent table with 1-day Time Travel retention is recoverable via UNDROP only within that 1-day window. After 2 days, the table has moved to Fail-safe, which does not support UNDROP. Therefore, the UNDROP fails because the Time Travel period has expired. Other options like transient table type, privileges, or name reuse are not applicable in this scenario.
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 table's Time Travel retention period has expired, and the table is now in Fail-safe.
Why this is correct
With DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS set to 1, the table is recoverable via Time Travel for only 1 day after being dropped. After 2 days, the Time Travel period has expired, and the table has moved to Fail-safe, which does not support UNDROP. Thus, the UNDROP fails because the table is no longer in Time Travel.
- ✗
The user lacks the necessary privileges to perform UNDROP on the table.
Why it's wrong here
While privileges are required, the scenario does not indicate a privilege issue. The engineer is attempting to recover a table dropped 2 days ago with a 1-day retention, so the error is more likely due to expiration. Privilege errors typically occur immediately, not after a delay.
- ✗
The table name was reused by another table, so UNDROP cannot restore the original.
Why it's wrong here
If the table name was reused, UNDROP would fail with a different error, but the scenario does not mention recreation. The primary issue is that the Time Travel retention period has passed, making the table unrecoverable via UNDROP. Reuse would cause a name conflict, but that is not the case here.
- ✗
The table was created as a transient table, so UNDROP is not supported.
Why it's wrong here
Transient tables do support UNDROP within their Time Travel retention period. However, in this scenario, the table is described as permanent, so this reason is incorrect. The failure is due to expired Time Travel, not the table type.
About these practice questions
This DEA-C02 question is part of Courseiva's 229-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 DEA-C02 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 DEA-C02 exam.