DEA-C02 Data Movement Practice Question
A data engineer needs to move a large table from an on-premises Oracle database into Snowflake on a recurring nightly basis. The source system allows outbound connections to cloud endpoints but does not permit installing third-party agents on the database host. Which Snowflake-native approach best fits these constraints?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is reaching for a streaming connector or external table when the source is a batch database and the host cannot run additional agents.
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
✓
Stage the extracted files in cloud storage and use COPY INTO with a storage integration
When agents cannot be installed on a source database, the practical Snowflake-native pattern is to extract to cloud storage and load with COPY INTO. A storage integration keeps credentials out of SQL, and COPY INTO handles parallelism, error handling, and load history. Streaming connectors and external tables assume different source technologies and would not work against a plain Oracle host under these constraints.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create an external table directly over the Oracle database
Why it's wrong here
External tables in Snowflake read files from stages or from external catalogs such as Iceberg, not from a live Oracle database. There is no direct external-table binding to an Oracle instance, so queries would not see the source rows. This option confuses external tables with database links or federated query engines and would fail immediately at creation time because no valid stage or catalog is available.
- ✗
Mount the Oracle data files as a network share and query them with a directory table
Why it's wrong here
Directory tables catalog files on a stage and expose their metadata, but they do not parse Oracle data files or load rows into tables. Oracle data files are not a supported file format for COPY INTO, and mounting them does not make them queryable as structured data. This approach mistakes file metadata discovery for actual data ingestion, so the target table would remain empty.
- ✓
Stage the extracted files in cloud storage and use COPY INTO with a storage integration
Why this is correct
Extracting to cloud storage and then using COPY INTO with a storage integration is the standard Snowflake-native pattern when agents cannot be installed on the source. The storage integration avoids embedding long-lived cloud credentials in SQL, and COPY INTO provides parallel, resumable loading with load metadata tracking. It also keeps the Oracle host limited to outbound file transfers, which matches the stated network constraint.
- ✗
Use Snowpipe Streaming with the Snowflake Kafka connector pointed at Oracle
Why it's wrong here
Snowpipe Streaming ingests rows through the Snowflake Ingest SDK, and the Kafka connector is designed for Kafka topics, not Oracle tables. Oracle does not natively emit a Kafka stream without additional tooling, and the constraint forbids installing agents on the host. This option misapplies a streaming ingestion path to a batch database source and would require infrastructure the scenario explicitly rules out.
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.