SnowPro Advanced: Security Engineer Question 160
Select 2Implement Time Travel and Fail-safe for data recovery:A financial services company stores regulated transaction data in a permanent Snowflake table. The security engineer must ensure the team can recover data if an analyst accidentally deletes rows, while also understanding what recovery options remain after the Time Travel retention period expires. Which TWO statements correctly describe how Snowflake Time Travel and Fail-safe apply in this scenario?
- A
If rows are accidentally deleted, the team can use Time Travel to query or restore the table to a point before the delete, as long as the data is still within the table's retention period.
- B
After the Time Travel retention period ends, users with sufficient privileges can directly query historical table data from Fail-safe using standard SQL.
- C
Fail-safe provides an additional 7 days of recovery after Time Travel for permanent objects, but it is intended for Snowflake-managed disaster recovery and customer support-assisted recovery rather than self-service access.
- D
Setting DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS to 0 on a permanent table eliminates both Time Travel and Fail-safe for that table.
- E
Transient and temporary tables include the same 7-day Fail-safe protection as permanent tables, so they can be recovered through Snowflake Support after Time Travel expires.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answers: A, C
Explanation
The key distinction is that Time Travel is the primary self-service recovery feature, while Fail-safe is a Snowflake-managed emergency recovery mechanism for permanent objects only. In practice, if analysts delete data accidentally, teams should recover within the configured Time Travel retention period by querying historical versions or restoring objects. After that period, permanent objects enter Fail-safe for 7 days, but customers cannot directly access Fail-safe data with SQL. Snowflake documentation distinguishes these features clearly: Time Travel supports querying and restoring historical data within retention, whereas Fail-safe is intended only as a last resort and requires Snowflake involvement. Also, transient and temporary tables do not have Fail-safe, which makes object type selection an important design decision for security and recovery requirements.
- A. Correct.
Correct. Time Travel allows recovery of historical data for a table, schema, or database within the configured retention period. In a real incident such as an accidental DELETE, the team can use AT | BEFORE clauses to query past data or use CLONE/UNDROP capabilities where applicable, provided the object and data are still within Time Travel retention.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Fail-safe is not a customer-accessible historical query feature. Once Time Travel has expired, users cannot run normal SQL against Fail-safe data. Fail-safe exists as a last-resort recovery mechanism managed by Snowflake, typically involving Snowflake Support, and is not designed for routine operational restores by customers.
- C. Correct.
Correct. For permanent objects, Fail-safe adds a 7-day period after Time Travel ends. However, it is not intended as a self-service recovery layer. This distinction is important for security engineers and administrators designing recovery expectations: operational recovery should rely on Time Travel, while Fail-safe is an emergency safety net administered by Snowflake.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Setting DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS to 0 can disable or minimize Time Travel access depending on object type and account edition settings, but it does not remove Fail-safe from permanent objects. Permanent tables still enter Fail-safe after the applicable Time Travel window ends.
- E. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Transient and temporary tables do not have Fail-safe protection. This is a common misconception because they can still have limited Time Travel retention, but they are specifically designed to reduce storage recovery overhead and therefore exclude Fail-safe.