DAA-C01 Question 58
Single answerSchedulingA data analyst team has created a dashboard that must show a refreshed regional sales summary every weekday at 6:00 AM America/New_York time. The summary is produced by a SQL statement that aggregates the previous day's data into a reporting table. The team wants the refresh to run automatically on schedule, without relying on external orchestration tools, and they want the run to continue even if no users are logged in. Which approach best meets these requirements in Snowflake?
- A
Create a task with a CRON schedule that specifies the America/New_York time zone and executes the aggregation SQL into the reporting table
- B
Create a stream on the source sales table and set it to run every weekday at 6:00 AM in the America/New_York time zone
- C
Use a dynamic table with TARGET_LAG = '1 day' to guarantee refresh exactly at 6:00 AM America/New_York time every weekday
- D
Schedule a worksheet in Snowsight to execute the aggregation SQL every weekday at 6:00 AM America/New_York time
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is to use a Snowflake task with a CRON schedule and time zone. Tasks are Snowflake's native scheduling mechanism for executing SQL automatically on a defined cadence, which aligns with the requirement to avoid external orchestration and to continue running without user interaction. In contrast, streams only track data changes and do not schedule execution. Dynamic tables help maintain derived data freshness but do not provide exact-time scheduling guarantees such as "every weekday at 6:00 AM America/New_York." Snowflake documentation for tasks describes scheduled tasks using CRON expressions and time zones, which is the key capability being tested here. This question reflects a common real-world distinction in Snowflake: use tasks for precise scheduled execution, streams for CDC, and dynamic tables for freshness-based maintenance rather than clock-based scheduling.
- A. Correct.
Correct. A Snowflake task is the native Snowflake object designed to execute SQL on a defined schedule or after predecessor tasks. Tasks support scheduled execution using CRON expressions, including an explicit time zone, and they run server-side in Snowflake without requiring an active user session. This directly satisfies the requirement for an internal, reliable scheduled refresh at 6:00 AM America/New_York on weekdays.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Streams do not execute code on a schedule. A stream tracks change data capture (CDC) information on a table, view, or external table so downstream processes can consume changes. To run SQL at a specific time, a task would still be needed. This option reflects the common misconception that streams are schedulers rather than change-tracking objects.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Dynamic tables automate refreshes based on target lag, but they are not intended to guarantee execution at an exact clock time such as 6:00 AM every weekday in a specified time zone. TARGET_LAG expresses freshness objectives, not a precise schedule. This makes dynamic tables a poor fit when the business requirement is a fixed-time daily refresh for reporting.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Snowsight worksheet scheduling can be useful for some interactive workflows, but the requirement is specifically for a native Snowflake scheduling mechanism that is dependable for server-side recurring execution independent of users being logged in. For production-grade SQL orchestration inside Snowflake, tasks are the appropriate object. Choosing worksheet scheduling here would not be the best answer for this exam-style requirement.