Snowflake SnowPro Certification Practice Test

What type of data objects cannot be cloned in Snowflake?

1. Only transient tables

2. Only temporary tables

3. Data sharing objects

4. Database roles

The correct answer is: Only temporary tables

The question focuses on identifying the type of data objects that cannot be cloned in Snowflake. Cloning is a feature in Snowflake that enables users to create instantaneous copies of objects without duplicating the underlying data, which is useful for versioning and testing. Temporary tables are specifically designed for short-term data storage that exists only within the current session. They are ephemeral by nature and are automatically dropped at the end of the session, which is a key distinction that makes them unsuitable for cloning. Since cloning is geared towards creating persistent copies of data, the transient nature of temporary tables prevents them from being cloned. In contrast, both transient tables and data sharing objects can be cloned, as they support the retention of data across sessions, albeit transient tables have a different lifecycle than temporary ones. Database roles, on the other hand, pertain to user permissions and access management rather than data storage, making them irrelevant in the context of cloning data objects. Therefore, temporary tables are the only category among the provided options that cannot be cloned in Snowflake due to their session-bound characteristics.