Snowflake Certification Practice Test

Which type of cache exists on the Cloud Services layer?

1. Server cache

2. Results cache

3. Warehouse cache

4. Metadata cache

The correct answer is: Metadata cache

The correct answer is that metadata cache exists on the Cloud Services layer. In Snowflake, the Cloud Services layer manages various aspects of the system, including user sessions, query parsing, and data governance, which necessitates the storage of metadata about the objects in your account. Metadata cache is crucial because it helps optimize query performance by retaining information about the structure and properties of the data and objects without the need to repeatedly fetch this information from underlying storage. This caching strategy enhances efficiency and speeds up query performance by allowing quicker access to essential metadata, ensuring that data can be processed and retrieved more effectively. The metadata cache facilitates the server’s ability to deliver swift responses, particularly important in a cloud environment where latency needs to be minimized. Other cache types mentioned in the choices relate to different layers or functionalities within Snowflake. For instance, results cache is specifically associated with the caching of query results to improve the performance of repeated queries. Warehouse cache pertains to the caching that occurs at the warehouse level for performance improvement during query execution. Server cache would not be applicable in this scenario as it does not directly relate to the Cloud Services layer's function.