DEA-C02 Data Governance Practice Question
A retail company has a Snowflake account with many databases and schemas. The data governance team needs to discover all columns that contain personal data such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers, and automatically assign a system tag so that a masking policy can be applied later. They want to minimize manual effort and ensure the classification is consistent. Which Snowflake feature should they use to achieve this?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse auditing views like ACCESS_HISTORY with data classification capabilities, assuming that access patterns reveal sensitive data.
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
✓
Use Snowflake Data Classification to automatically scan and tag columns with system tags like SNOWFLAKE.CORE.PRIVACY_CATEGORY.
Snowflake Data Classification is designed to automatically scan and classify data, applying system tags that indicate privacy categories. This reduces manual effort and ensures consistent tagging across the account. The other options either require manual work, rely on incomplete methods, or use auditing features that do not detect sensitive data content. Thus, Data Classification is the correct choice.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Manually run SHOW COLUMNS in each database and schema, then apply tags using ALTER TABLE ... SET TAG.
Why it's wrong here
Manually inspecting columns is labor-intensive and error-prone, especially across many databases. It does not provide automatic detection of personal data and would require writing custom logic to identify sensitive columns. This approach fails to meet the requirement of minimizing manual effort and ensuring consistent classification. Snowflake offers a native feature for this purpose, so manual inspection is not the right solution.
- ✓
Use Snowflake Data Classification to automatically scan and tag columns with system tags like SNOWFLAKE.CORE.PRIVACY_CATEGORY.
Why this is correct
Snowflake Data Classification automatically scans tables and views, identifies sensitive data using native and custom classifiers, and assigns system tags such as SNOWFLAKE.CORE.PRIVACY_CATEGORY. This directly addresses the need to discover and tag personal data across many databases with minimal manual effort. The system tags can then be used to drive masking policies, making this the correct approach.
- ✗
Enable Access History and then use the ACCESS_HISTORY view to identify columns containing personal data.
Why it's wrong here
Access History records which columns were accessed by queries, but it does not analyze column content to determine if they contain personal data. It is an auditing feature, not a classification tool. Using it to identify sensitive columns would be ineffective because it only reflects access patterns, not data content. Therefore, this option does not meet the requirement.
- ✗
Create a stored procedure that queries INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS and uses pattern matching to assign tags.
Why it's wrong here
While a stored procedure could automate some tagging, it relies on column names and simple patterns, which may miss sensitive data that doesn't match the patterns. It also requires development and maintenance effort. Snowflake Data Classification uses actual data sampling and machine learning for higher accuracy, so a custom procedure is not the best fit for consistent, low-effort classification.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every DEA-C02 question from scratch — 229 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or 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.