ADA-C01 Question 394
Single answerCalculate data storage usage and credit consumptionA Snowflake administrator is reviewing yesterday's costs for a business-critical database. The team reports that a transient table named SALES_STAGE was loaded heavily during the day, then dropped at 6:00 PM after a data pipeline issue was discovered. The account uses Enterprise Edition, Time Travel for the database is set to 1 day, and Fail-safe applies where supported. Management asks which statement best describes how storage usage and compute credits are affected by this sequence of events.
Which statement is correct?
- A
After the transient table is dropped, all storage charges stop immediately because transient objects do not retain historical data.
- B
Dropping the transient table stops warehouse credit consumption for that table, but storage charges can continue temporarily because Time Travel retention still applies to transient tables.
- C
The dropped transient table continues to consume both warehouse credits and storage charges until Fail-safe ends, because all dropped tables remain fully queryable during retention.
- D
Because the table is transient, it does not incur Fail-safe storage, but storage charges may continue during its Time Travel retention period after the drop; dropping the table itself does not consume warehouse credits.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: D
Explanation
This question tests the distinction between Snowflake storage billing and credit consumption. In Snowflake, compute credits are consumed by active compute resources, primarily virtual warehouses, whereas storage charges are based on data retained in Snowflake, including historical data retained for data protection features. Transient tables differ from permanent tables because they do not have Fail-safe, reducing long-term storage exposure after deletion. However, transient tables still support Time Travel retention, so after a DROP, their historical data may continue to incur storage charges until the configured retention period expires. For this scenario, the correct interpretation is that storage may continue temporarily due to Time Travel, but no ongoing warehouse credits are consumed simply because the table was dropped. This aligns with Snowflake documentation on table types, Time Travel, Fail-safe, and storage/compute cost behavior.
- A. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Transient tables do not have Fail-safe, but they do support Time Travel with a retention period (subject to account/object settings and edition capabilities). After a transient table is dropped, historical data can still be retained for the Time Travel period, so storage charges do not necessarily stop immediately.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. It is true that dropping a table does not itself create ongoing warehouse credit consumption and that transient tables can still incur storage during Time Travel retention. However, the wording is misleading because warehouse credits are consumed by virtual warehouse activity, not 'for that table.' A dropped table does not independently consume warehouse credits. The key correct statement must distinguish storage retention from compute consumption more precisely.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Transient tables do not use Fail-safe, which is one of their defining characteristics. Also, dropped tables are not continuing to consume warehouse credits merely because retained historical data exists. Querying Time Travel data may require compute at query time, but retained storage itself does not continuously consume warehouse credits.
- D. Correct.
Correct. Transient tables are designed to avoid Fail-safe storage costs, but they can still incur storage charges during their Time Travel retention period after being dropped. Warehouse credits are tied to compute resources such as virtual warehouses, serverless features, or cloud services thresholds, not to the mere existence of a dropped table. Therefore, dropping the table does not itself consume warehouse credits, while retained historical bytes can still affect storage usage until Time Travel retention expires.