Snowflake SnowPro Certification Practice Test

What is a characteristic of micro-partitions in Snowflake?

1. They can be merged

2. They are constantly changing

3. Once created, they are never changed or overwritten

4. They can be manually deleted

The correct answer is: Once created, they are never changed or overwritten

A defining characteristic of micro-partitions in Snowflake is that once they are created, they are never changed or overwritten. This feature ensures data immutability, which means that the data within a micro-partition remains consistent and reliable over time. This immutability allows for efficient storage and improved query performance, as the system doesn’t need to deal with the complexities of updating records within existing micro-partitions. Additionally, the architecture allows Snowflake to maintain historical data, which is beneficial for tasks such as time travel and data auditing. Each micro-partition stores a contiguous range of data in columnar format, and while the overall system can manage data changes (like new inserts or updates), the individual micro-partitions themselves do not change after they are written. The other choices touch on aspects that may be relevant to data management but do not accurately capture the critical characteristic of micro-partitions as it pertains to their immutability.