Snowflake Exam COF-C02 Topic 3 Question 60 Discussion

Actual exam question for Snowflake's COF-C02 exam

Question #: 60
Topic #: 3

[All COF-C02 Questions]

What happens to the underlying table data when a CLUSTER BY clause is added to a Snowflake table?

AData is hashed by the cluster key to facilitate fast searches for common data values

BLarger micro-partitions are created for common data values to reduce the number of partitions that must be scanned

CSmaller micro-partitions are created for common data values to allow for more parallelism

DData may be colocated by the cluster key within the micro-partitions to improve pruning performance

Show Suggested Answer

Suggested Answer: D

When aCLUSTER BYclause is added to a Snowflake table, it specifies one or more columns to organize the data within the table's micro-partitions. This clustering aims to colocate data with similar values in the same or adjacent micro-partitions. By doing so, it enhances the efficiency of query pruning, where the Snowflake query optimizer can skip over irrelevant micro-partitions that do not contain the data relevant to the query, thereby improving performance.

References:

Snowflake Documentation on Clustering Keys & Clustered Tables1.

Community discussions on how source data's ordering affects a table with a cluster key

by Merilyn at Aug 19, 2025, 01:48 AM

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Kiley

2 days ago

I remember something about how data is colocated by the cluster key, which improves pruning performance. That sounds like option D to me.

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Billy

8 days ago

I think the CLUSTER BY clause helps with data organization, but I'm not sure if it actually creates larger or smaller micro-partitions.

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Pearlie

13 days ago

The CLUSTER BY clause is all about optimizing the micro-partitions, so I'm guessing it's either option B or C. I'll need to think through the tradeoffs a bit more to decide.

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Karl

18 days ago

I'm pretty confident that the CLUSTER BY clause is about hashing the data to facilitate faster searches. I think option A is the right answer here.

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Danica

23 days ago

Based on the options, it seems like the CLUSTER BY clause helps with data pruning and parallelism. I'm leaning towards option D, since that sounds the most relevant.

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Emeline

28 days ago

Hmm, I'm a bit confused on the exact impact of the CLUSTER BY clause. Is it just about creating larger or smaller micro-partitions, or is there more to it?

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Ozell

1 month ago

I think the key here is understanding how Snowflake's micro-partitioning works. The CLUSTER BY clause should help group common data values together to improve query performance.

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Tawna

2 months ago

I see your point, Brandee. Colocating data by the cluster key could indeed improve performance.

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Brandee

2 months ago

I believe the answer is D) Data may be colocated by the cluster key within the micro-partitions to improve pruning performance.

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Edgar

2 months ago

Option D sounds the most accurate to me. Clustering the data by the key should help optimize pruning during query execution.

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Bettye

3 months ago

I agree with Vincenza, hashing the data by the cluster key makes sense for faster searches.

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Vincenza

3 months ago

I think the answer is A) Data is hashed by the cluster key to facilitate fast searches for common data values.

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