Snowflake ARA-C01 Exam Practice Test Instant Access

Question 1

The data share exists between a data provider account and a data consumer account. Five tables from the provider account are being shared with the consumer account. The consumer role has been granted the imported privileges privilege.

What will happen to the consumer account if a new table (table_6) is added to the provider schema?

AThe consumer role will automatically see the new table and no additional grants are needed.

BThe consumer role will see the table only after this grant is given on the consumer side:
grant imported privileges on database PSHARE_EDW_4TEST_DB to DEV_ROLE;

CThe consumer role will see the table only after this grant is given on the provider side:
use role accountadmin;
Grant select on table EDW.ACCOUNTING.Table_6 to share PSHARE_EDW_4TEST;

DThe consumer role will see the table only after this grant is given on the provider side:
use role accountadmin;
grant usage on database EDW to share PSHARE_EDW_4TEST ;
grant usage on schema EDW.ACCOUNTING to share PSHARE_EDW_4TEST ;
Grant select on table EDW.ACCOUNTING.Table_6 to database PSHARE_EDW_4TEST_DB ;

Answer : D

When a new table (table_6) is added to a schema in the provider's account that is part of a data share, the consumer will not automatically see the new table. The consumer will only be able to access the new table once the appropriate privileges are granted by the provider. The correct process, as outlined in option D, involves using the provider's ACCOUNTADMIN role to grant USAGE privileges on the database and schema, followed by SELECT privileges on the new table, specifically to the share that includes the consumer's database. This ensures that the consumer account can access the new table under the established data sharing setup. Reference:

Snowflake Documentation on Managing Access Control

Snowflake Documentation on Data Sharing

Question 2

An Architect needs to design a data unloading strategy for Snowflake, that will be used with the COPY INTO command.

Which configuration is valid?

ALocation of files: Snowflake internal location
. File formats: CSV, XML
. File encoding: UTF-8
. Encryption: 128-bit

BLocation of files: Amazon S3
. File formats: CSV, JSON
. File encoding: Latin-1 (ISO-8859)
. Encryption: 128-bit

CLocation of files: Google Cloud Storage
. File formats: Parquet
. File encoding: UTF-8
* Compression: gzip

DLocation of files: Azure ADLS
. File formats: JSON, XML, Avro, Parquet, ORC
. Compression: bzip2
. Encryption: User-supplied key

Answer : C

For the configuration of data unloading in Snowflake, the valid option among the provided choices is 'C.' This is because Snowflake supports unloading data into Google Cloud Storage using the COPY INTO <location> command with specific configurations. The configurations listed in option C, such as Parquet file format with UTF-8 encoding and gzip compression, are all supported by Snowflake. Notably, Parquet is a columnar storage file format, which is optimal for high-performance data processing tasks in Snowflake. The UTF-8 file encoding and gzip compression are both standard and widely used settings that are compatible with Snowflake's capabilities for data unloading to cloud storage platforms. Reference:

Snowflake Documentation on COPY INTO command

Snowflake Documentation on Supported File Formats

Snowflake Documentation on Compression and Encoding Options

Question 3

A company is designing a process for importing a large amount of loT JSON data from cloud storage into Snowflake. New sets of loT data get generated and uploaded approximately every 5 minutes.

Once the loT data is in Snowflake, the company needs up-to-date information from an external vendor to join to the data. This data is then presented to users through a dashboard that shows different levels of aggregation. The external vendor is a Snowflake customer.

What solution will MINIMIZE complexity and MAXIMIZE performance?

A1. Create an external table over the JSON data in cloud storage.
2. Create a task that runs every 5 minutes to run a transformation procedure on new data, based on a saved timestamp.
3. Ask the vendor to expose an API so an external function can be used to generate a call to join the data back to the loT data in the transformation procedure.
4. Give the transformed table access to the dashboard tool.
5. Perform the aggregations on the dashboard tool.

B1. Create an external table over the JSON data in cloud storage.
2. Create a task that runs every 5 minutes to run a transformation procedure on new data based on a saved timestamp.
3. Ask the vendor to create a data share with the required data that can be imported into the company's Snowflake account.
4. Join the vendor's data back to the loT data using a transformation procedure.
5. Create views over the larger dataset to perform the aggregations required by the dashboard.
6. Give the views access to the dashboard tool.

C1. Create a Snowpipe to bring the JSON data into Snowflake.
2. Use streams and tasks to trigger a transformation procedure when new JSON data arrives.
3. Ask the vendor to expose an API so an external function call can be made to join the vendor's data back to the loT data in a transformation procedure.
4. Create materialized views over the larger dataset to perform the aggregations required by the dashboard.
5. Give the materialized views access to the dashboard tool.

D1. Create a Snowpipe to bring the JSON data into Snowflake.
2. Use streams and tasks to trigger a transformation procedure when new JSON data arrives.
3. Ask the vendor to create a data share with the required data that is then imported into the Snowflake account.
4. Join the vendor's data back to the loT data in a transformation procedure
5. Create materialized views over the larger dataset to perform the aggregations required by the dashboard.
6. Give the materialized views access to the dashboard tool.

Answer : D

Using Snowpipe for continuous, automated data ingestion minimizes the need for manual intervention and ensures that data is available in Snowflake promptly after it is generated. Leveraging Snowflake's data sharing capabilities allows for efficient and secure access to the vendor's data without the need for complex API integrations. Materialized views provide pre-aggregated data for fast access, which is ideal for dashboards that require high performance1234.

Reference =

* Snowflake Documentation on Snowpipe4

* Snowflake Documentation on Secure Data Sharing2

* Best Practices for Data Ingestion with Snowflake1

Question 4

A retailer's enterprise data organization is exploring the use of Data Vault 2.0 to model its data lake solution. A Snowflake Architect has been asked to provide recommendations for using Data Vault 2.0 on Snowflake.

What should the Architect tell the data organization? (Select TWO).

AChange data capture can be performed using the Data Vault 2.0 HASH_DIFF concept.

BChange data capture can be performed using the Data Vault 2.0 HASH_DELTA concept.

CUsing the multi-table insert feature in Snowflake, multiple Point-in-Time (PIT) tables can be loaded in parallel from a single join query from the data vault.

DUsing the multi-table insert feature, multiple Point-in-Time (PIT) tables can be loaded sequentially from a single join query from the data vault.

EThere are performance challenges when using Snowflake to load multiple Point-in-Time (PIT) tables in parallel from a single join query from the data vault.

Answer : A, C

Data Vault 2.0 on Snowflake supports the HASH_DIFF concept for change data capture, which is a method to detect changes in the data by comparing the hash values of the records. Additionally, Snowflake's multi-table insert feature allows for the loading of multiple PIT tables in parallel from a single join query, which can significantly streamline the data loading process and improve performance1.

Reference =

* Snowflake's documentation on multi-table inserts1

* Blog post on optimizing Data Vault architecture on Snowflake2

Question 5

What is the MOST efficient way to design an environment where data retention is not considered critical, and customization needs are to be kept to a minimum?

AUse a transient database.

BUse a transient schema.

CUse a transient table.

DUse a temporary table.

Answer : A

Transient databases in Snowflake are designed for situations where data retention is not critical, and they do not have the fail-safe period that regular databases have. This means that data in a transient database is not recoverable after the Time Travel retention period. Using a transient database is efficient because it minimizes storage costs while still providing most functionalities of a standard database without the overhead of data protection features that are not needed when data retention is not a concern.

Question 6

A user is executing the following command sequentially within a timeframe of 10 minutes from start to finish:

What would be the output of this query?

ATable T_SALES_CLONE successfully created.

BTime Travel data is not available for table T_SALES.

CThe offset -> is not a valid clause in the clone operation.

DSyntax error line 1 at position 58 unexpected 'at'.

Answer : A

The query is executing a clone operation on an existing table t_sales with an offset to account for the retention time. The syntax used is correct for cloning a table in Snowflake, and the use of the at(offset => -60*30) clause is valid. This specifies that the clone should be based on the state of the table 30 minutes prior (60 seconds * 30). Assuming the table t_sales exists and has been modified within the last 30 minutes, and considering the data_retention_time_in_days is set to 1 day (which enables time travel queries for the past 24 hours), the table t_sales_clone would be successfully created based on the state of t_sales 30 minutes before the clone command was issued.

Question 7

An Architect is troubleshooting a query with poor performance using the QUERY function. The Architect observes that the COMPILATION_TIME Is greater than the EXECUTION_TIME.

What is the reason for this?

AThe query is processing a very large dataset.

BThe query has overly complex logic.

CThe query Is queued for execution.

DThe query Is reading from remote storage

Answer : B

The correct answer is B because the compilation time is the time it takes for the optimizer to create an optimal query plan for the efficient execution of the query. The compilation time depends on the complexity of the query, such as the number of tables, columns, joins, filters, aggregations, subqueries, etc. The more complex the query, the longer it takes to compile.

Option A is incorrect because the query processing time is not affected by the size of the dataset, but by the size of the virtual warehouse. Snowflake automatically scales the compute resources to match the data volume and parallelizes the query execution. The size of the dataset may affect the execution time, but not the compilation time.

Option C is incorrect because the query queue time is not part of the compilation time or the execution time. It is a separate metric that indicates how long the query waits for a warehouse slot before it starts running. The query queue time depends on the warehouse load, concurrency, and priority settings.

Option D is incorrect because the query remote IO time is not part of the compilation time or the execution time. It is a separate metric that indicates how long the query spends reading data from remote storage, such as S3 or Azure Blob Storage. The query remote IO time depends on the network latency, bandwidth, and caching efficiency.Reference:

Understanding Why Compilation Time in Snowflake Can Be Higher than Execution Time: This article explains why the total duration (compilation + execution) time is an essential metric to measure query performance in Snowflake. It discusses the reasons for the long compilation time, including query complexity and the number of tables and columns.

Exploring Execution Times: This document explains how to examine the past performance of queries and tasks using Snowsight or by writing queries against views in the ACCOUNT_USAGE schema. It also describes the different metrics and dimensions that affect query performance, such as duration, compilation, execution, queue, and remote IO time.

What is the ''compilation time'' and how to optimize it?: This community post provides some tips and best practices on how to reduce the compilation time, such as simplifying the query logic, using views or common table expressions, and avoiding unnecessary columns or joins.

Snowflake ARA-C01 SnowPro Advanced: Architect Certification Exam Practice Test