DEA-C02 Storage and Data Protection Practice Question
A data engineer manages a transient table named STG_EVENTS with DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS set to 0 in a Snowflake Enterprise Edition account. A batch job accidentally truncates the table at 02:00. The engineer attempts to recover the lost rows using Time Travel queries against the table's historical versions but finds no historical data available. Which statement explains why the historical data is unavailable?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming transient tables never support Time Travel, when in fact they do but are limited to a maximum of one day of retention and can be set to zero.
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 was set to 0, so no historical versions were retained and the truncated data is unrecoverable via Time Travel.
Transient tables support Time Travel, but their retention period can be set to zero, and when it is, Snowflake stores no historical versions. Because the engineer configured zero-day retention on STG_EVENTS, no prior state exists to query after the truncation, making Time Travel recovery impossible. The retention setting, not the table type or the truncation operation, is the controlling factor.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Historical data is only accessible through Fail-safe, which requires a support ticket and is not queryable directly.
Why it's wrong here
Fail-safe is a non-queryable, Snowflake-managed recovery layer available only after the Time Travel window expires, and it applies to permanent tables, not transient tables. The engineer's inability to query history stems from a zero-day retention setting, which leaves no Time Travel window to query in the first place.
- ✗
Transient tables do not support Time Travel; only permanent tables can have historical versions retained.
Why it's wrong here
Transient tables do support Time Travel, but their retention is limited to a maximum of one day, and it can be set to zero. The absence of historical versions here is caused by the retention period being zero, not by a categorical lack of support for Time Travel on transient tables.
- ✓
The table's Time Travel retention was set to 0, so no historical versions were retained and the truncated data is unrecoverable via Time Travel.
Why this is correct
With DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS set to 0, Snowflake retains no historical versions for the table, so queries using AT or BEFORE clauses return no prior state. Because the batch job truncated the table, the only recovery path would have been Time Travel, which was effectively disabled by the zero-day retention setting.
- ✗
The TRUNCATE operation bypasses Time Travel and immediately purges all historical micro-partitions regardless of retention settings.
Why it's wrong here
TRUNCATE is a metadata operation that does not bypass Time Travel. Historical versions remain queryable for the configured retention period. The reason no history exists in this scenario is the zero-day retention, not any special behavior of TRUNCATE that would purge history independently of the retention setting.
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
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