Snowflake Certification Practice Test

Can both a user-defined clustering key and a natural clustering key be established for a table in Snowflake?

1. Yes, they can both be used simultaneously

2. No, only one clustering key can be established

3. Yes, but only for small tables

4. Yes, but they must be defined by the same user

The correct answer is: No, only one clustering key can be established

In Snowflake, a table can only have a single clustering key at any given time, which means that you cannot establish both a user-defined clustering key and a natural clustering key simultaneously. A clustering key serves to optimize the storage and retrieval performance of the data in large tables, enabling better query performance by defining how the data should be physically stored. While it’s possible to use various clustering strategies, when you set a user-defined clustering key, it replaces any existing clustering key that might already be applied to the table. This design choice helps maintain clarity and efficiency in data management, ensuring that the system does not have conflicting instructions about how to cluster the data. Other options suggest scenarios that are either inaccurate or misleading regarding the capability of clustering keys in Snowflake, reinforcing the idea that only one valid clustering structure can exist per table. Thus, the correct response is that only one clustering key can be established, confirming the functionality and limitations of clustering in Snowflake's architecture.