COF-C03 Practice Question: Snowflake AI Data Cloud Features and Architecture
A Snowflake administrator is configuring a new virtual warehouse for a team of data scientists who will run ad-hoc queries with varying concurrency. The administrator wants to ensure optimal performance and cost-efficiency. Which two configurations should the administrator consider? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is focusing solely on performance (e.g., oversizing or disabling caches) or cost (e.g., 24/7 running) without considering the balance needed for ad-hoc workloads.
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
✓
Set the warehouse to auto-suspend after 5 minutes of inactivity to reduce credit consumption.
For ad-hoc queries with varying concurrency, a multi-cluster warehouse with a min of 1 and max of 3 clusters handles concurrency spikes efficiently, while auto-suspend after 5 minutes reduces credits during idle periods. These two settings balance performance and cost, making them the best choices.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Set the warehouse to auto-suspend after 5 minutes of inactivity to reduce credit consumption.
Why this is correct
Auto-suspend automatically stops the warehouse after a period of inactivity, which saves credits. A 5-minute auto-suspend is a reasonable balance for ad-hoc queries, as it avoids keeping the warehouse running when not needed, while not being so short that it causes frequent restarts. This helps with cost-efficiency for intermittent workloads.
- ✗
Disable the query result cache to ensure queries always use the latest data.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling the query result cache would force every query to execute, even if the same query was run recently and the data hasn't changed. This increases compute usage and cost, and does not improve performance for ad-hoc queries. The result cache is beneficial for repetitive queries and does not affect data freshness if the underlying data changes.
- ✗
Set the warehouse to run 24/7 without auto-suspend to avoid startup latency.
Why it's wrong here
Running a warehouse 24/7 without auto-suspend incurs continuous credit consumption, even when no queries are running. This is not cost-efficient for ad-hoc workloads that may have idle periods. Startup latency is minimal and does not justify the high cost. Auto-suspend is recommended for intermittent usage.
- ✓
Enable multi-cluster warehouse with a minimum of 1 and maximum of 3 clusters to handle concurrency spikes.
Why this is correct
Multi-cluster warehouses automatically add clusters when queries are queued due to concurrency, and remove them when demand decreases. Setting a min of 1 and max of 3 allows scaling during peak times while controlling cost. This is ideal for unpredictable ad-hoc query workloads with varying concurrency, ensuring performance without over-provisioning.
- ✗
Increase the warehouse size to 4X-Large to ensure queries run as fast as possible.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing warehouse size provides more compute resources per query, but for ad-hoc queries with varying concurrency, it may not be cost-effective. Larger warehouses consume more credits per hour. The team may not need such a large size; multi-cluster scaling is more appropriate for concurrency. Oversizing can lead to unnecessary costs without proportional benefits.
About these practice questions
This COF-C03 question is part of Courseiva's 280-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 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.