Sybex's Study Guide for Snowflake SnowPro Certification

Prepare smarter, faster, and better with the premier study guide for Snowflake SnowPro Core certification

Snowflake, a cloud-based data warehousing platform, has steadily gained popularity since its 2014 launch. Snowflake offers several certification exams, of which the SnowPro Core certification is the foundational exam. The SnowPro Core Certification validates an individual's grasp of Snowflake as a cloud data warehouse, its architectural fundamentals, and the ability to design, implement, and maintain secure, scalable Snowflake systems.

Sybex’s Study Guide for Snowflake SnowPro Certification delivers comprehensive coverage of every relevant exam topic on the Snowflake SnowPro Core Certification test. Prepare efficiently and effectively for the exam with online practice tests and flashcards, a digital glossary, and concise and easy-to-follow instruction from the subject-matter experts at Sybex. You'll gain the necessary knowledge to help you succeed in the exam and will be able to apply the acquired practical skills to real-world Snowflake solutions.

This Study Guide includes:

• Comprehensive understanding of Snowflake's unique shared data, multi-cluster architecture
• Guidance on loading structured and semi-structured data into Snowflake
• Utilizing data sharing, cloning, and time travel features
• Managing performance through clustering keys, scaling compute up, down & across
• Steps to account management and security configuration including RBAC & MFA
• All the info you need to obtain a highly valued credential for a rapidly growing new database software solution
• Access to the Sybex online learning center, with chapter review questions, full-length practice exams, hundreds of electronic flashcards, and a glossary of key terms

Perfect for anyone considering a new career in cloud-based data warehouse solutions and related fields, Sybex’s Study Guide for Snowflake SnowPro Certification is also a must-read for veteran database professionals seeking an understanding of one of the newest and fastest-growing niches in data.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hamid Mahmood Qureshi is a Senior Cloud and Datawarehouse Professional with two decades of experience architecting, designing, and leading the deployment of many data warehouses and business intelligence solutions. He has substantial experience and qualifications in various data analytics systems, including Teradata, Oracle, Hadoop, and modern cloud-based tools like Snowflake. Having worked extensively with traditional technologies combined with his knowledge of modern platforms, he has accumulated substantial practical expertise in data warehousing and analytics on Snowflake, which he has captured in his publications.

Introduction xxi

Assessment Test xxxiii

Answers to Assessment Test xxxviii

Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview 1

Introducing Snowflake 2

Snowflake Journey 3

Snowflake Certifications 3

Signing Up for a Snowflake Trial 5

Summary 13

Exam Essentials 14

Review Questions 15

Chapter 2: Snowflake Architecture 17

Traditional Database Architectures 18

Snowflake’s Hybrid Architecture 19

The Three Layers of Snowflake Architecture 20

The Database Storage Layer: Micro-Partitions and Clustering 22

The Query Processing Layer: The Concept of a Virtual

Warehouse 26

Configuring a Virtual Warehouse 30

Summary 32

Exam Essentials 33

Review Questions 34

Chapter 3: Interfaces and Connectivity 39

Snowflake Web UI 40

Web Interface Components 41

Snowflake Partners 46

Snowflake Connectors and Drivers 46

User Defined Functions 47

SnowSQL 47

New Snowflake Web Interface 50

Summary 53

Exam Essentials 53

Review Questions 54

Chapter 4: Loading Data 57

Data Loading in Snowflake 59

Supported File Formats for Loading Data 60

Compression 60

Encryption 60

What Is a Stage? 61

External Stage 62

Internal Stages 62

Data Loading via Internal Stages 64

Loading On-premises Data via the Table Stage 64

Loading On-premises Data via the User Stage 67

Loading On-premises Data via the Named Internal Stage 70

Data Ingestion Using the Named External Stage 73

Loading Data from Cloud Storage via the External Stage 74

Loading Data via the Snowflake Web UI 75

Basic Data Transformations While Ingesting 77

External Tables 79

Semi-Structured Data 81

The VARIANT Data Type and Semi-Structured Data 81

Loading NDJSON Data 82

Loading JSON Data 85

Unloading Data from Snowflake 88

File Formats Supported for Unloading 89

Compression 89

Encryption 90

Unload Data to an On-premises System via an Internal Stage 90

Load Near-Real- Time Streaming Data 91

How Snowpipe Works 92

Optimizing Data Loading and Unloading 93

Bulk Load Optimization 93

Optimizing Snowpipe Loads 93

Optimizing Data Unloading 93

Summary 94

Exam Essentials 94

Review Questions 95

Chapter 5 Data Pipelines 99

Introducing Tasks 100

Scheduling a Task 100

Connecting Multiple Tasks in a Task Tree 104

User-Managed and Serverless Tasks 107

Introducing Streams 110

Capture Changes Using Streams 110

Summary 114

Exam Essentials 114

Review Questions 115

Chapter 6 Continuous Data Protection 117

Components of Continuous Data Protection 118

Data Encryption 118

Access Control 118

Network Policies 119

Time Travel 119

Fail-safe 119

Time Travel and Fail-safe 119

Time Travel in Action 122

Undrop Using Time Travel 127

Time Travel and Fail-Safe Storage Costs 128

Temporary Tables 129

Transient Tables 129

Summary 129

Exam Essentials 130

Review Questions 131

Chapter 7 Cloning and Data Sharing 133

Zero-Copy Cloning 134

How Zero-Copy Cloning Works 135

Database, Schema, and Table Cloning 138

Cloning with Time Travel 142

Secure Data Sharing in Snowflake 143

Direct Sharing 144

Snowflake Data Marketplace 150

Data Exchange 151

Summary 152

Exam Essentials 152

Review Questions 154

Chapter 8 Performance 157

Snowflake Performance Considerations 158

Virtual Warehouse Configuration 160

Virtual Warehouse Scaling Up and Down 160

Scaling Out Using Multi-cluster Virtual Warehouses 161

Caching in Snowflake 164

Metadata Cache 165

Query Result Cache 166

Virtual Warehouse Cache 167

Micro-partition Pruning 168

Micro-partitions and Data Clustering 169

What Happens Behind the Scenes 169

Clustering Keys 170

Search Optimization 171

Materialized Views 171

Summary 172

Exam Essentials 173

Review Questions 175

Chapter 9 Security 179

Data Encryption at Rest 180

Key Rotation and Rekeying 181

Tri-Secret Secure 181

Authentication 181

Multifactor Authentication (MFA) 181

Key Pair Authentication 183

SSO via SAML 2.0 Federated Authentication 183

Password Policies 183

User Provisioning Through SCIM 184

Authorization 184

Access Control in Snowflake 185

Column-Level Security 188

Row-Level Security 188

Secure Views and Secure UDFs 189

User Access Audit Log 189

Network 189

Network Policies 189

Support for Private Connectivity 190

Encryption for All Communication 190

Compliance with Standards 190

Summary 191

Exam Essentials 192

Review Questions 194

Chapter 10 Account and Resource Management 197

Resource Monitors 198

System Usage and Billing 205

The ACCOUNT_USAGE Schema 206

The INFORMATION_SCHEMA Schema 209

Snowflake Releases 214

Phased Release Process for Full Releases 214

Summary 214

Exam Essentials 215

Review Questions 216

Appendix Answers to the Review Questions 219

Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview 220

Chapter 2: Snowflake Architecture 220

Chapter 3: Interfaces and Connectivity 222

Chapter 4: Loading Data 224

Chapter 5: Data Pipelines 226

Chapter 6: Continuous Data Protection 226

Chapter 7: Cloning and Data Sharing 227

Chapter 8: Performance 229

Chapter 9: Security 231

Chapter 10: Account and Resource Management 232

Index 235

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