SnowPro Associate: Platform Question 81
Single answer○ Cell execution statusA data engineer is using a Snowflake notebook to validate a new transformation pipeline. After running several cells, one SQL cell shows a red error indicator, a later Python cell has not started, and another completed cell shows a green success indicator. The engineer wants to quickly determine which notebook cells finished successfully, which failed, and which are still pending execution before rerunning only the necessary steps. Which statement best describes how cell execution status should be interpreted in this scenario?
- A
The green indicator means the cell completed successfully, the red indicator means the cell failed, and cells without completion status may still be pending or not yet run
- B
A red indicator means the cell is still running, while a green indicator means the cell is queued and waiting for warehouse resources
- C
If one cell fails, Snowflake automatically marks all later cells as failed, even if they were never executed
- D
Cell execution status is shown only for SQL cells; Python cells do not display execution state in Snowflake notebooks
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
This question tests practical interpretation of notebook cell execution status in Snowflake. In a real troubleshooting scenario, users rely on visual execution indicators to understand what completed successfully, what failed, and what still needs to run. The key concept is that execution status is used to assess each cell independently rather than assuming all later cells inherit a failed state. This aligns with Snowflake notebook behavior and general best practices for iterative development: inspect cell-level status, review failed cells, and rerun only the required steps. Candidates should be familiar with notebook interfaces and status indicators as part of working effectively with Snowflake-hosted development workflows.
- A. Correct.
Correct. In Snowflake notebooks, cell execution status helps users distinguish successful, failed, running, or not-yet-run cells. A green success indicator represents a completed successful execution, a red indicator represents failure, and cells lacking a completion state may be pending, queued, or simply not executed yet depending on the workflow. This interpretation is the practical way to identify which cells need attention before rerunning work.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. This reverses the meaning of the indicators. Red is used to communicate an error or failed execution, not an in-progress state. Green indicates successful completion, not a queued state. A candidate might choose this if they confuse notebook status icons with external job-monitoring tools.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. A failure in one cell does not automatically mean all later cells are marked as failed. In notebooks, later cells may remain unrun or pending until explicitly executed. This distractor reflects a common misconception from linear pipeline tools where downstream tasks inherit failure states automatically.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Snowflake notebooks provide execution status visibility for notebook cells, including Python and SQL contexts. The platform does not limit execution-state feedback to SQL-only cells. Someone might pick this if they incorrectly assume Python execution behaves like an unsupported external runtime.