SnowPro Core key terms

Snowflake separates storage, compute, and cloud services into independent layers, so each can scale and be billed on its own without affecting the others.

A named cluster of compute resources that executes queries and DML. Warehouses are started and stopped on demand and are billed per second while running, based on their size.

The unit in which table data is stored: a contiguous, columnar, compressed group of rows, roughly 50 to 500 MB uncompressed, with metadata used for pruning.

The layer that coordinates the account: authentication, access control, metadata, query parsing and optimization, and transaction management. It runs continuously and is not tied to a warehouse.

A warehouse that can run several clusters of the same size at once, adding clusters when queries queue and removing them when idle. Requires Enterprise edition or higher.

A column or expression defined on a table that Snowflake uses to co-locate related rows in the same micro-partitions, improving pruning for large tables and selective filters.

A named set of privileges to which access is granted. Users receive roles, and roles can be granted to other roles, so permissions are never assigned to users directly.

A specific permission to perform an action on an object, such as SELECT on a table or USAGE on a warehouse. Privileges are granted to roles.

The tree of roles in an account. A role inherits every privilege of the roles granted to it, so privileges flow downward from ACCOUNTADMIN toward PUBLIC.

A schema where object owners cannot grant access to their objects; only the schema owner or a role with MANAGE GRANTS can, which centralizes control.

An account-level rule set listing allowed or blocked IP addresses, optionally per user, that limits where connections to the account can originate.

A schema-level policy attached to a table or view that decides, at query time and per role, which rows are returned; stored data is unchanged.

A schema-level policy applied to a column that returns masked values to roles without the policy's exemption, while the stored data stays intact.

Snowflake's use of micro-partition metadata to skip partitions that cannot contain rows matching a filter, cutting the amount of data scanned by a query.

A Snowsight view of a single query's execution plan, showing each operator's time, rows, bytes, and spilling, used to find performance bottlenecks.

A cloud services cache holding the results of recent queries for 24 hours. An identical query reuses them without a running warehouse if the underlying data has not changed.

The local SSD cache on a warehouse's compute nodes that holds table data read by earlier queries. It is lost when the warehouse is suspended.

When an operation such as a sort or join exceeds warehouse memory, intermediate data is written to local disk and then remote storage, which slows the query.

An Enterprise feature that builds and maintains an auxiliary index so highly selective point lookups and substring searches avoid scanning whole tables.

An account or warehouse-level object that tracks credit consumption and can suspend warehouses or notify users when spending reaches set thresholds.

An analytic function that computes a value across a set of related rows, such as a running total or rank, without collapsing those rows into one.

A clause that filters rows after window functions are evaluated, letting you keep, for example, only the top-ranked row per group without a subquery.

A semi-structured data type that stores JSON, Avro, ORC, or Parquet values up to 16 MB; elements are read with path notation or cast to other types.

A table function that converts arrays or nested objects inside a VARIANT column into separate rows, usually combined with LATERAL to keep the parent row's columns.

A table whose content is defined by a query and refreshed automatically by Snowflake to a target lag, removing the need to schedule manual transformation jobs.

Procedural code written in Snowflake Scripting, JavaScript, Python, Java, or Scala and run with CALL, used for multi-step logic, loops, and error handling.

A named location that points to internal Snowflake storage or an external cloud bucket and is used as the source or target of loads and unloads.

A named object storing parsing rules such as type, field delimiter, header, and compression, referenced by stages and COPY statements.

The command that loads files from a stage into a table, or unloads query results from a table to a stage, with options for error handling and file management.

A continuous loading service that runs a pipe's COPY statement shortly after new files land in a stage, using Snowflake-managed compute instead of a user warehouse.

An account-level object holding a trust relationship and credentials for an external cloud storage provider, so stages can read buckets without storing keys in SQL.

A read-only table whose rows come from files in an external stage rather than Snowflake storage; partition columns and file metadata are queried like normal columns.

The ability to query, clone, or restore data as it looked at an earlier point, for 0 to 90 days depending on edition and the retention set on the object.

A fixed seven-day period after Time Travel ends during which Snowflake may recover data after a disaster. Users cannot query or restore from Fail-safe.

Creating a copy of a table, schema, or database that initially shares the same micro-partitions, so no data is duplicated until either copy is modified.

An object that records inserts, updates, and deletes on a table so downstream tasks can process only changed rows, enabling change data capture.

Sharing live database objects with other Snowflake accounts through a share, without copying data; consumers query with their own warehouses and pay their own compute.

A Snowflake account created and paid for by a provider so a consumer that does not own a Snowflake account can query the shared data.