Snowflake SnowPro Certification Practice Test

Which of the following can be cloned?

1. Internal Named Stages

2. External Named Stages

3. Both Internal and External Named Stages

4. Neither Internal nor External Named Stages

The correct answer is: External Named Stages

In Snowflake, external named stages can be cloned because they are essentially metadata objects that reference external storage locations, such as Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, or Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. Cloning in Snowflake allows users to create a new object that is a copy of the existing one, without duplicating the actual data stored in external locations. This feature is particularly useful in development and testing environments, as it facilitates rapid iteration and version control. Internal named stages, on the other hand, are used for storing transient data within Snowflake itself and do not support cloning in the same way external stages do. This distinction is important because it highlights how Snowflake treats different types of stages differently based on their underlying architecture and use cases. Therefore, while external named stages can be cloned effectively due to their nature as references to external storage, internal named stages do not share this capability. Understanding this difference is crucial for effectively managing data pipelines and environments within Snowflake.