ADA-C01 Question 415
Single answerUse BudgetsA Snowflake administrator needs to control spend for a new analytics project. The project uses a dedicated virtual warehouse, and management wants an alert sent to the finance distribution list when monthly warehouse spend reaches 80% of the team's target. The administrator also wants the budget to evaluate only the resources used by this project, not account-wide consumption. Which action should the administrator take?
- A
Create a custom warehouse resource monitor with a notify trigger at 80%, then attach the finance distribution list to the warehouse monitor.
- B
Create a budget, define a monthly spending limit, assign the project's warehouse as a monitored object, and configure a notification integration/recipient for alerts.
- C
Create an account-level budget for the target amount and use object tags to filter notifications so only this warehouse is included.
- D
Create a serverless alert that queries ACCOUNT_USAGE.WAREHOUSE_METERING_HISTORY and sends an email when cost reaches 80%, because budgets cannot monitor specific objects.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The best answer is to use Snowflake Budgets directly. Budgets are intended to help administrators track spending against a target amount for a defined period and send notifications as thresholds are approached or exceeded. For a project-specific use case, the administrator should scope the budget to the supported monitored object, such as the dedicated warehouse used by that project, rather than using an account-level budget. This provides more accurate visibility into that team's spend. Resource monitors remain useful for warehouse credit governance, but they are a different feature focused on warehouse consumption controls, not the broader budgeting workflow. A custom alert based on ACCOUNT_USAGE views is possible, but Snowflake best practice is to use native Budgets when the requirement is budget tracking and threshold notification. Candidates should distinguish among Budgets, Resource Monitors, and custom monitoring solutions, and choose the native feature that most directly satisfies targeted spend tracking plus notifications.
- A. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Resource monitors are designed to track and control warehouse credit usage through actions such as notifications, suspending, or aborting queries. However, they are not the Snowflake Budgets feature and do not address the requirement to use budgets for spend tracking and alerting. In addition, the option implies attaching a distribution list directly to a warehouse resource monitor, which is not how Snowflake Budgets notification configuration works.
- B. Correct.
Correct. Snowflake Budgets are intended to track spend against a defined amount over a time interval and can be associated with specific supported objects rather than only account-wide consumption. For this scenario, the administrator should create a budget with a monthly limit, associate the dedicated warehouse so the budget reflects project-specific usage, and configure notifications so stakeholders such as finance receive alerts when spend reaches thresholds like 80% of the target.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. An account-level budget would evaluate broader account consumption, which does not meet the requirement to isolate only the new project's resources. Tags are useful for governance and classification, but Snowflake Budgets are not filtered by tag in the way this option suggests. The misconception is assuming account budgets can be narrowed to a single warehouse through tagging alone.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. While a custom serverless alert that queries usage views could be built, this is not the best answer because Snowflake Budgets are specifically designed for this use case. The statement that budgets cannot monitor specific objects is false. The distractor reflects a common misunderstanding that budgets are only for account-wide views and that custom SQL monitoring is required for object-level cost tracking.