ADA-C01 Question 200
Single answer2.3 Given a scenario, manage account identifiers.A global company is standardizing how internal applications connect to Snowflake across development, test, and production accounts in multiple cloud regions. Some applications currently use legacy account locator-based URLs, while newer scripts use organization-qualified account names. The security team wants connection strings that are easier to understand, support features that require organization context, and remain valid even when administrators need to distinguish between accounts with similar names in different regions. Which approach should the Snowflake administrator recommend?
- A
Use the account locator as the primary account identifier for all clients because it is the most readable and is required for organization-level features.
- B
Use the organization-qualified account name as the primary account identifier for clients and administration, because it is human-readable and uniquely identifies the account within the organization.
- C
Use only the account name without the organization name, because account names are globally unique across all Snowflake organizations.
- D
Use the region identifier alone in connection strings, because Snowflake can infer the correct account from the user's login name.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
For managing account identifiers, Snowflake supports multiple ways to identify an account, including an account locator and an organization-qualified account name. In practice, administrators should prefer the organization-qualified account name when they want a clear, human-readable, and unambiguous identifier in a multi-account environment. The account name alone is insufficient because its uniqueness is scoped to the organization. The region alone is never an account identifier. Snowflake documentation on account identifiers and organization/account naming describes how organization-qualified account names are used to uniquely identify accounts and how they differ from locator-based identifiers commonly seen in legacy connection patterns.
- A. Incorrect.
Incorrect. The account locator is a valid Snowflake account identifier and appears in URLs, but it is not the most human-readable choice for standardization. It also does not provide the organization context that newer patterns use. A common misconception is that locator-based identifiers are preferred because they are older and widely seen in URLs; however, organization-qualified account names are typically easier to manage in multi-account organizations.
- B. Correct.
Correct. The organization-qualified account name combines the organization name and account name to uniquely identify an account within the organization and is easier for humans to interpret than a locator. This format aligns well with modern Snowflake administration and is especially useful when organizations manage many accounts across regions and environments. It also supports scenarios where organization context matters.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Account names are not globally unique by themselves. They are unique within the organization, not across all Snowflake customers. Without the organization name, the identifier can be ambiguous, especially in large enterprises or in documentation and automation shared across teams.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. The region identifier by itself is not enough to identify a Snowflake account. Multiple accounts can exist in the same region, so Snowflake cannot determine the account solely from the region or the user's login name. This distractor reflects a misunderstanding of how account URLs and identifiers are constructed.