ARA-C01 Exam Dumps : SnowPro Advanced: Architect Certification Exam

When a SnowflakeBusiness Critical (BC)edition account shares data, it must followdata sharing restrictionsdesigned to maintain thehigher level of compliance and securityguaranteed by BC.

Bydefault, BC accounts canonly share data with other BC (or higher)accounts, to maintain consistent security and compliance (e.g., HIPAA, HITRUST, FedRAMP).

However,an exceptioncan be madeif a user with the proper privilegeexplicitly disables the restriction.

Key Concept: share_restrictions

Snowflake enforcesdata sharing restrictionsby default forBC accounts.

Arole with the OVERRIDE SHARE RESTRICTIONS global privilegecan bypass this by setting theshare_restrictions = FALSEwhen adding the target account.

Correct Option: D

This is correct because:

The usermust have a role with the OVERRIDE SHARE RESTRICTIONS privilege.

That user can thenset share_restrictions = FALSEwhen adding the Enterprise edition consumer account.

Official Documentation Extract:

"If the data provider is a Business Critical (or higher) account, Snowflake enforces a restriction by default that only allows sharing data with other Business Critical (or higher) accounts. A user in the provider account with a role that has the global privilege OVERRIDE SHARE RESTRICTIONS can override this restriction by explicitly setting SHARE_RESTRICTIONS = FALSE when adding the consumer account."

Source:Snowflake Docs – CREATE SHARE

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

A.Incorrect – This is not absolute. Business Critical accountscanshare data with Enterprise accounts,if the restriction is explicitly overridden.

B.Incorrect – Simply having authority to create or alter a share isnot enough. You must have the OVERRIDE SHARE RESTRICTIONS privilege and set the restriction explicitly.

C.Incorrect – Setting share_restrictions = FALSE is required, but theprivilege to overridemust also be held by the role. Without the privilege, the action will fail.

This question tests several core Snowflake semi-structured data concepts that are explicitly part of the SnowPro Architect exam scope: working with VARIANT data, array handling, and the use of LATERAL FLATTEN. The activities element in the JSON structure is an array, meaning it must be flattened before individual attributes such as activityNumber and winner can be accessed. Option A is invalid because it attempts to directly reference fields inside an array without flattening it.

Option B correctly uses LATERAL FLATTEN on json:activities, which produces one row per activity. The alias p.value represents each array element, allowing access to activityNumber and winner. The IFF expression then compares the activity’s winner value with leader.number. When they match, the query returns leader.name.default; otherwise, it returns follower.name.default. Casting the result to VARCHAR ensures a proper scalar output.

Option C is incorrect because it attempts to return full JSON objects (leader or follower) rather than the nested name.default value. Option D uses OUTER => TRUE, which is unnecessary in this case because the activities array is guaranteed to exist; while it would still work, Snowflake exam questions typically expect the most precise and minimal correct solution.

Zero-copy cloning in Snowflake creates a metadata-only snapshot of databases, schemas, or tables, enabling rapid environment refreshes without duplicating data. However, not all dependent objects behave identically during cloning.

Pipes that reference external stages are not cloned because external stages depend on credentials and integrations that may not exist or be valid in the cloned environment (Answer C). This is a documented Snowflake behavior and an important consideration when cloning production environments into development.

Regarding privileges, a cloned database inherits privileges granted on child objects (such as schemas and tables), but it does not inherit privileges granted directly on the source database itself (Answer E). This design prevents unintended access escalation and ensures that security must be explicitly re-granted at the database level.

Understanding these nuances is essential for SnowPro Architect candidates when designing environment promotion strategies and managing data lifecycle processes using cloning.

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QUESTION NO: 40 [Performance Optimization and Monitoring]

Two SQL queries perform the same task, but one consistently outperforms the other in reports, even though the SQL logic appears equivalent.

What step ensures the comparison is accurate?

A. Eliminate compilation time metrics.

B. Ensure both queries use the same clustering keys.

C. Disable result cache usage for the faster query.

D. Suspend and resume the virtual warehouse between queries.

Answer: C

Snowflake’s result cache can cause misleading performance comparisons. If one query benefits from cached results while another does not, execution time metrics will not reflect true performance differences. Disabling result cache usage for the faster query ensures both queries execute fully and fairly (Answer C).

Suspending and resuming a warehouse clears the local data cache but does not necessarily control result cache usage. Compilation time is generally minimal compared to execution time and does not explain consistent performance differences. Clustering keys are unrelated if both queries access the same data.

This question reinforces a core SnowPro Architect principle: accurate performance testing requires controlling for caching effects. Architects must understand Snowflake’s caching layers to correctly interpret query performance metrics.