COF-C03 Question 192
Single answerNotificationsA data engineering team wants Snowflake to notify an external incident-management system whenever a task in a production pipeline fails. The solution must be managed within Snowflake and use a supported notifications feature rather than custom polling of task history. Which Snowflake object should the team configure to send the notification to the external endpoint?
- A
A NOTIFICATION INTEGRATION configured for an outbound notification target such as a webhook
- B
An EXTERNAL FUNCTION that calls the incident-management API after every task run
- C
A SECURITY INTEGRATION that connects Snowflake directly to the incident-management platform
- D
An ALERT object that automatically pushes outbound HTTP notifications without any integration
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
For Snowflake notifications to external systems, the key object is the NOTIFICATION INTEGRATION. It provides the managed configuration Snowflake uses for sending messages to supported destinations such as webhooks or cloud messaging services, depending on the notification pattern. In a real-world operations scenario, this is preferable to custom polling of TASK_HISTORY or building API calls with external functions because it uses Snowflake's native notifications framework. Candidates should distinguish among integration types: SECURITY INTEGRATION handles authentication-related connectivity, API/EXTERNAL FUNCTION patterns support remote procedure-style calls, and ALERT objects monitor conditions and trigger actions but are not themselves the outbound delivery configuration. Snowflake documentation on notification integrations and task error notifications aligns with this architecture.
- A. Correct.
Correct. Snowflake uses a NOTIFICATION INTEGRATION to define supported notification targets for outbound notifications, including webhook-based destinations. In practical implementations, this is the Snowflake object administrators configure so Snowflake can send event messages to an external service. This fits the requirement to use a managed Snowflake notifications feature instead of building custom polling or API-calling logic.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. An EXTERNAL FUNCTION is used to invoke remote services from SQL through API integration, but it is not the primary Snowflake notifications mechanism for task-failure notifications. Using an external function after every task run would require custom orchestration and does not satisfy the requirement to use Snowflake's supported notifications feature for event delivery.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. SECURITY INTEGRATION objects are used for authentication and security-related integrations, such as SSO, SCIM, OAuth, or external stages in some contexts. They are not the object used to define outbound notification delivery to a webhook or other notification destination.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. ALERT objects evaluate a condition and execute a SQL action when that condition is met, but they do not by themselves define how Snowflake sends outbound notifications to external endpoints. If an external notification target is required, the relevant configuration is a NOTIFICATION INTEGRATION. Choosing ALERT here reflects the misconception that alerts and notifications are interchangeable.