SNOWFLAKE certification preparation

ADA-C01 Practice Questions

Practice exam-style questions, check your answers, and review explanations and source references where they are available.

Exam: ADA-C01
Provider: SNOWFLAKE
Full set: 75 questions
Last Update Check: September 26, 2026

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The ADA-C01 exam validates your ability to implement and manage core solutions related to this framework. This certification is designed for professionals who design, deploy, and troubleshoot complex environments. On this page, we map the exam syllabus, explain the question formats, and guide your preparation strategy. We have included free ADA-C01 sample questions with answer explanations so you can approach the test with total confidence.

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A Snowflake Administrator wants to create a virtual warehouse that supports several dashboards, issuing various queries on the same database. For this warehouse, why should the Administrator consider setting AUTO_SUSPEND to 0 or NULL?

Answer options

Correct Answer:

Explanation

Setting the AUTOSUSPEND parameter to 0 or NULL disables the automatic suspension of a virtual warehouse. For a workload driven by dashboards, which frequently issue similar or overlapping queries against the same data, this is beneficial. By keeping the warehouse continuously active, the local data cache on the warehouse's SSDs remains "warm." Subsequent queries can then retrieve data from this fast local cache instead of the slower remote cloud storage, significantly improving query performance and user experience on the dashboards.

Why Incorrect

A. To save costs on warehouse shutdowns and startups for different queries

Disabling auto-suspend increases costs because the warehouse runs continuously, consuming credits even when idle. It does not save costs.

B. To save costs by running the warehouse as little as possible

This setting achieves the opposite; it ensures the warehouse runs continuously, maximizing its uptime and associated costs, rather than minimizing them.

D. To keep the query result cache warm for good performance on repeated queries

The query result cache is a global service in the cloud services layer, not tied to a specific virtual warehouse's state. It persists for 24 hours regardless of whether the warehouse is active or suspended.

References

1. Snowflake Documentation: Virtual Warehouse Considerations

Section: Overview of Warehouses > Virtual Warehouse Caching

Content: "When a warehouse is suspended

its data cache is dropped... Consequently

we recommend a sufficiently large auto-suspend period... For warehouses that you want to run continuously

you can set the auto-suspend period to 0 or NULL." This directly links continuous operation (disabling auto-suspend) with maintaining the data cache for performance.

2. Snowflake Documentation: CREATE WAREHOUSE

Section: Parameters > AUTOSUSPEND =

Content: "Specifies the number of seconds of inactivity after which a warehouse is automatically suspended... Setting a value of 0 or a NULL value means the warehouse never suspends." This confirms the technical effect of the setting.

3. Snowflake Documentation: Using Cached Results

Section: Result Cache

Content: "The result cache is a service that is available to all virtual warehouses in your account... The result cache is completely separate from the virtual warehouse cache." This reference clarifies that the query result cache (Option D) is independent of the warehouse's active state.

A requirement has been identified to allow members of a corporate Data Product team to bring in data sets from the Snowflake Marketplace. The members of this team use the role DP_TEAM. What grant statements must the ACCOUNTADMIN execute in order for the DP TEAM role to import and work with data from the Marketplace?

Answer options

Correct Answer:

Explanation

To enable a role to acquire and use data from the Snowflake Marketplace, two specific account-level privileges are required. First, the IMPORT SHARE privilege must be granted. This allows the role to view all inbound shares from providers, which is how Marketplace listings are made available to an account, and to create databases from those shares. Second, the CREATE DATABASE privilege is required for the role to execute the CREATE DATABASE command itself. The combination of these two grants allows the DPTEAM role to both see the shared data from the Marketplace and create a usable database from it.

Why Incorrect

A: marketplace in account and create database from share are not valid Snowflake privilege names or syntactically correct grant statements.

B: The Snowflake Marketplace is a feature, not a database object named snowflakemarketplace on which USAGE privileges can be granted.

C: The IMPORTED PRIVILEGES grant is used to give a role access to objects within a database that has already been created from a share, not to create the database itself.

References

1. Snowflake Documentation. (n.d.). Becoming a Consumer of Listings. Retrieved from https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/data-marketplace-consumer.

This document explicitly states: "To get data from a listing and create a database from it

a role must have the CREATE DATABASE and IMPORT SHARE privileges."

2. Snowflake Documentation. (n.d.). Access control privileges - Global Privileges. Retrieved from https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/security-access-control-privileges#global-privileges.

This section lists and describes IMPORT SHARE as a global (account-level) privilege that "Enables viewing all inbound shares (from providers) and creating databases from them."

3. Snowflake Documentation. (n.d.). CREATE DATABASE. Retrieved from https://docs.snowflake.com/en/sql-reference/sql/create-database.

Under the "Required Privileges" section for creating a database from a share

it confirms that a role requires both the CREATE DATABASE and IMPORT SHARE privileges.

What is required for stages, without credentials, to limit data exfiltration after a storage integration and associated stages are created?

Answer options

Correct Answer:

Explanation

To comprehensively limit data exfiltration, multiple account-level controls must be enabled. Setting REQUIRESTORAGEINTEGRATIONFORSTAGECREATION = true ensures that users cannot create new external stages with their own credentials that could point to unauthorized locations. Setting REQUIRESTORAGEINTEGRATIONFORSTAGEOPERATION = true mandates that all data movement via stages uses a pre-approved storage integration. Finally, setting PREVENTUNLOADTOINLINEURL = true blocks users from bypassing stage controls by unloading data directly to a presigned URL. Collectively, these three parameters provide a robust defense against common data exfiltration vectors.

Why Incorrect

A. Setting PREVENTUNLOADTOINLINEURL to false leaves open a significant exfiltration path by allowing users to unload data to arbitrary presigned URLs.

B. Disabling the REQUIRESTORAGEINTEGRATION parameters removes the core security control that forces data movement through approved, administrator-configured cloud storage locations.

C. This configuration disables all relevant security controls, thereby increasing the risk of data exfiltration rather than preventing it.

References

1. Snowflake Documentation: Account Parameters » REQUIRESTORAGEINTEGRATIONFORSTAGECREATION. This document states

"Specifies whether to block the creation of a new external stage that does not reference a storage integration."

2. Snowflake Documentation: Account Parameters » REQUIRESTORAGEINTEGRATIONFORSTAGEOPERATION. This document explains

"Specifies whether to block a COPY

GET

or PUT command that accesses an external stage but does not reference a storage integration."

3. Snowflake Documentation: Account Parameters » PREVENTUNLOADTOINLINEURL. This document clarifies

"Specifies whether to block a COPY INTO command that unloads data to a presigned URL."

4. Snowflake Documentation: Administration » Security » Network & Private Connectivity » Blocking network traffic from Snowflake. Under the section "Prevent data exfiltration from stages

" this page explicitly recommends setting all three parameters (REQUIRESTORAGEINTEGRATIONFORSTAGECREATION

REQUIRESTORAGEINTEGRATIONFORSTAGEOPERATION

and PREVENTUNLOADTOINLINEURL) to TRUE as a combined strategy.

Which function is the role SECURITYADMIN responsible for that is not granted to role USERADMIN?

Answer options

Correct Answer:

Explanation

The SECURITYADMIN role is granted the MANAGE GRANTS privilege by default. This powerful privilege allows the role to modify any grant in the account, including revoking grants made by other roles. The USERADMIN role, which is focused solely on creating and managing users and roles, does not have this global grant management capability. While SECURITYADMIN inherits the privileges of USERADMIN (like creating users/roles), its unique and distinguishing function is the ability to manage system-wide grants.

Why Incorrect

A. Reset a Snowflake user's password: The USERADMIN role can perform user management tasks, including resetting passwords for users it creates or has ownership over.

C. Create new users: This is a primary function of the USERADMIN role, which has the CREATE USER privilege.

D. Create new roles: This is a primary function of the USERADMIN role, which has the CREATE ROLE privilege.

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References

1. Snowflake Documentation: System-Defined Roles

Section: SECURITYADMIN

Content: "Role that can manage any object grant globally... This role is granted the MANAGE GRANTS privilege to allow it to modify any grant

including revoking it."

Section: USERADMIN

Content: "Role that is dedicated to user and role management only. More specifically

this role can create and manage users and roles..."

2. Snowflake Documentation: Access control privileges

Section: Global Privileges

Content: Describes the MANAGE GRANTS privilege: "Enables a role to grant or revoke privileges that have been granted by the privilege grantor (i.e. the role that holds the OWNERSHIP privilege on the object) to other roles." The SECURITYADMIN role holds this privilege by default.

For Snowflake network policies, what will occur when the account_level and user_level network policies are both defined?

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In which scenario will use of an external table simplify a data pipeline?

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ADA-C01 Practice Questions

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