SnowPro Associate: Platform Question 338
Single answer4.1 Outline continuous data protection with Snowflake.A data engineering team accidentally runs a DELETE statement without a WHERE clause on a critical Snowflake table at 2:00 PM. The team discovers the mistake at 2:20 PM and needs to restore the table to its state just before the DELETE, with minimal operational effort and without relying on any external backup tool. Which Snowflake feature should they use first to recover the data?
- A
Use Time Travel to query or restore the table to a point before 2:00 PM
- B
Use Fail-safe to immediately restore the table to its earlier state
- C
Clone the damaged table and then manually reinsert the deleted rows from the clone
- D
Recreate the table from the most recent warehouse cache
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is Time Travel. In Snowflake, continuous data protection includes Time Travel and Fail-safe. Time Travel is used for self-service recovery of data that was changed, deleted, or dropped within the retention period. This makes it the correct first choice for accidental DML operations such as an unintended DELETE. Fail-safe exists as an additional recovery layer after Time Travel expires, but it is not meant for immediate operational recovery and generally involves Snowflake support. Warehouse caching does not provide recoverability, and cloning by itself only reflects the current state unless paired with Time Travel. According to Snowflake documentation and best practices, recent accidental data loss should be handled first with Time Travel because it is designed for fast point-in-time access and restoration.
- A. Correct.
Correct. Time Travel is Snowflake's primary continuous data protection feature for recovering data changed or deleted within the configured retention period. Because the issue was discovered only 20 minutes after the DELETE, the team can use Time Travel to query the table as it existed before 2:00 PM or restore it with SQL such as AT | BEFORE clauses or related recovery operations. This is the fastest built-in option for recent accidental data changes.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Fail-safe is not intended for immediate, self-service recovery by customers. It is a last-resort recovery mechanism after the Time Travel retention period has expired, and recovery requires Snowflake support. It is also not designed for routine operational restores when Time Travel is still available.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Cloning creates a zero-copy clone of the current state of an object. If the source table is already damaged, cloning it after the DELETE would copy the damaged state, not the pre-delete data. While cloning can be combined with Time Travel in some recovery workflows, cloning the damaged table alone does not solve this scenario.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Warehouse cache is a performance optimization for query processing, not a recovery or backup mechanism. It cannot be used to recreate a table or restore deleted data.