COF-C03 Data Collaboration Practice Question
A provider runs CREATE SHARE sales_share; then GRANT USAGE ON DATABASE sales_db TO SHARE sales_share; GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA sales_db.public TO SHARE sales_share; GRANT SELECT ON TABLE sales_db.public.orders TO SHARE sales_share; ALTER SHARE sales_share ADD ACCOUNT = consumer_acct; A consumer in consumer_acct queries the shared database and receives results. Six months later, the provider executes REVOKE SELECT ON TABLE sales_db.public.orders FROM SHARE sales_share; What is the immediate effect for the consumer?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that a mounted share or cached results preserve access after a privilege is revoked.
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 consumer immediately loses the ability to query the table and receives an authorization error.
Shares expose live provider data and enforce privileges at query time, so revoking SELECT on a table from a share removes access immediately. The consumer does not need to unmount the database, and cached results do not preserve authorization. The share object and other granted objects remain intact; only the revoked table becomes inaccessible, with a standard insufficient privileges error on the next attempt.
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 consumer keeps access but can no longer see the table in SHOW TABLES output.
Why it's wrong here
Visibility and queryability are governed by the same privilege. If SELECT on a table is revoked from a share, the consumer loses both the ability to query it and the metadata visibility for that object. There is no Snowflake behavior where a consumer can still query a table but cannot see it listed; revocation removes access entirely.
- ✗
The consumer can still query the shared table because the share was already mounted and the data is cached locally.
Why it's wrong here
Snowflake shares do not copy data; the consumer always reads live provider data through the share. Caching does not persist access rights after a revocation. Once the SELECT privilege is revoked from the share, the consumer's next query fails with an authorization error, even if results were cached earlier. The share object itself remains, but the table is no longer accessible.
- ✓
The consumer immediately loses the ability to query the table and receives an authorization error.
Why this is correct
Privileges granted to a share are enforced at query time against the provider's live data. Revoking SELECT on the table from the share removes the consumer's access instantly, so the next query returns an error such as 'SQL access control error: Insufficient privileges to operate on table'. No re-mounting is required for the revocation to take effect, and previously cached results do not preserve access.
- ✗
The consumer retains read access until the share is dropped or the account is removed from the share.
Why it's wrong here
Removing the account from the share is not required to revoke object-level privileges. Share privileges are evaluated per object and per query, so revoking SELECT on a table takes effect even while the consumer account remains in the share. The share continues to exist and may still expose other granted objects, but this specific table becomes inaccessible.
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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
This COF-C03 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 COF-C03 exam.