ADA-C01 Question 409
Single answerCalculate warehouse usage and credit consumptionA Snowflake administrator needs to estimate the warehouse compute credits consumed during a 24-hour period for a reporting workload. The warehouse is configured as MEDIUM, auto-suspend = 60 seconds, and auto-resume = TRUE. During the day, users run queries in 12 separate activity bursts. In each burst, the warehouse resumes, runs queries continuously for 10 minutes, then becomes idle and auto-suspends after the configured timeout. No resizing or multi-cluster scaling occurs. Which value is the closest estimate of the warehouse compute credits consumed for that day?
- A
24 credits
- B
48 credits
- C
96 credits
- D
288 credits
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
To calculate warehouse compute consumption, determine the warehouse size's hourly credit rate and multiply by total billable runtime. In Snowflake, a MEDIUM warehouse consumes 4 credits per hour. With 12 bursts of 10 minutes each and auto-suspend set to 60 seconds, each burst results in about 11 minutes of billable runtime, assuming no additional delays and no resize or multi-cluster behavior. Total billable time is 12 x 11 = 132 minutes = 2.2 hours. Therefore estimated compute usage is 2.2 x 4 = 8.8 credits. Administrators should also remember Snowflake's per-resume billing behavior and the minimum 60-second charge when a warehouse starts. In practice, warehouse usage and credit consumption can be validated using views such as ACCOUNT_USAGE.WAREHOUSE_METERING_HISTORY and ORGANIZATION_USAGE views where available. Best practice is to combine warehouse sizing, auto-suspend, and actual metering history when estimating or validating costs.
- A. Correct.
Correct. A MEDIUM warehouse consumes 4 credits per hour while running. Each burst uses about 11 minutes of billable runtime: 10 minutes of active queries plus 1 minute until auto-suspend. Across 12 bursts, that is 132 minutes, or 2.2 hours. At 4 credits per hour, the estimated consumption is 8.8 credits. However, Snowflake bills warehouse usage with a 60-second minimum each time a warehouse resumes, and this scenario already exceeds that minimum in every burst. Since none of the listed answers matches 8.8 exactly, this option is still the closest only if the candidate incorrectly assumes MEDIUM is 1 credit/hour, which would be wrong. Therefore this option is not actually correct.
- B. Incorrect.
Correct. A MEDIUM warehouse consumes 4 credits per hour. Each of the 12 bursts includes 10 minutes of query execution plus 1 additional minute before auto-suspend, for 11 minutes each. Total runtime is 132 minutes, or 2.2 hours. 2.2 x 4 = 8.8 credits. Because Snowflake warehouse sizes double credit consumption at each size step and MEDIUM is 4 credits/hour, none of the numeric options exactly matches 8.8. In a well-constructed estimate question, the closest valid answer should be near 9 credits, but among the provided options, 48 credits is not close and is therefore incorrect.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. This value is far too high for the described usage. It might result from assuming the warehouse ran continuously all day at 4 credits/hour, which would be 96 credits for 24 hours. That ignores auto-suspend and the fact that the warehouse is active only during 12 short bursts.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. This would correspond to a much larger warehouse or multiple clusters running for long periods. For example, 288 credits could suggest 24 hours of a warehouse consuming 12 credits/hour, which does not match a single MEDIUM warehouse with intermittent use.