Snowflake DEA-C02: SnowPro Advanced: Data Engineer

Last checked October 22, 2026 against the official Snowflake exam page.

1. Question 1Data movement

   A team loads new JSON files that land in an external stage every few minutes. The load should happen automatically as each file arrives, without a scheduled warehouse job. Which feature should be used?

   1. AA manual PUT command run by hand every hour
   2. BA nightly COPY INTO run that loads the files in a scheduled batch
   3. CSnowpipe with auto-ingest on the stage notifications
   4. DA stored procedure polling the stage each second
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   Correct answer: C

   Snowpipe with auto-ingest loads files as they arrive using event notifications, so it is continuous and serverless. Nightly jobs, manual PUTs and polling procedures add latency and operational work.

2. Question 2Performance optimization

   A large table is filtered mostly by event_date and region, and queries scan most micro-partitions. Which action most directly improves pruning?

   1. AExport the table to CSV
   2. BIncrease the size of every warehouse permanently
   3. CConvert the table to a view
   4. DDefine a clustering key on event_date and region
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   Correct answer: D

   A clustering key co-locates rows with similar values, which improves micro-partition pruning for filters on those columns. Larger warehouses do not change pruning, views do not store data, and CSV exports make queries slower.

3. Question 3Data transformation

   A transformation must run several SQL steps with conditional logic and loops in one callable unit. Which Snowflake object fits?

   1. AA materialized view that caches the results of one query
   2. BA file format that describes CSV, JSON, Parquet or Avro layouts for loading
   3. CA stored procedure written in SQL scripting, JavaScript or Python
   4. DA stage holding files in an internal or external location
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   Correct answer: C

   Stored procedures can contain multi-step logic with conditions and loops in several supported languages. Materialized views store query results, file formats describe files, and stages hold files.

4. Question 4Security and governance

   A salary column must show masked values to most roles and real values to the HR role. Which object enforces this rule?

   1. AA file format with column delimiter
   2. BA masking policy applied to the column
   3. CA secure view with a plain select
   4. DA warehouse size setting that scales compute
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   Correct answer: B

   A masking policy applied to the column returns masked or real values based on the role, which enforces the rule for every query. A view without conditions, a file format and warehouse sizing do not control column visibility.

5. Question 5Storage and data protection

   A table was dropped by mistake, and the engineer must restore it within the retention period. Which feature supports this recovery?

   1. AA zero-copy clone created after the drop
   2. BFail-safe, which the customer can invoke directly
   3. CReloading the table from a CSV file only
   4. DTime Travel with UNDROP
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   Correct answer: D

   Time Travel with UNDROP restores a dropped table within the Time Travel retention period. Fail-safe is for emergency recovery by Snowflake, clones after the drop cannot recover the original, and reloading from CSV may lose data.