SnowPro Advanced: Administrator Preparation Details
The SnowPro Advanced: Administrator (ADA-C02) exam validates advanced skills in securing, governing, and optimizing Snowflake environments. This guide maps every domain and objective from Snowflake’s official exam guide to the vendor documentation you need to study efficiently. You can also explore more Snowflake certification study guides on the Snowflake Certification category to keep building your skills.
SnowPro Advanced: Administrator Materials
| Coursera | Prepare for SnowPro Core Exam: Architecture & SQL |
| Udemy | SnowPro Advanced: Administrator ADA-C02 Tests |
Domain 1.0: Snowflake Security, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), and User Administration
1.1 Manage administrative roles
Identify use cases and follow best practices for ORGADMIN and ACCOUNTADMIN roles (note: ORGADMIN will be replaced with GLOBARORGADMIN)
Analyze the impact of organizational-level changes on account-level objects
Managing accounts in your organization
1.2 Given a set of business requirements, design access control framework
Identify use cases for the different frameworks (Discretionary Access Control (DAC), Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), User-based access Control (UBAC))
Determine the use cases for, and hierarchy of, system-defined roles
Determine the use cases for custom security roles
Analyze the implications of role inheritance when granting or revoking privileges
Grant access to specific objects within a database that require privilege inheritance
1.3 Given a scenario, create and manage access control.
Identify and apply different privileges available for each object type
Custom security roles and users (SHOW command)
Analyze and audit user and query activity history using the ACCOUNT_USAGE and ORGANIZATION_USAGE schemas
Accessing the Organization Usage Schema
QUERY_HISTORY view (Account Usage)
Privileges required to view query history
1.4 Given a scenario, fine-tune access controls.
Secure the ACCOUNTADMIN role
Use and manage database roles and use cases
Create custom roles
Determine use cases for primary and secondary roles
Enabling secondary roles for a session
Align usage of object access with business functions
Manage cloned objects and their impact on granted privileges
Create additional Administrators
Monitor granted privileges to users and roles, and on objects
Granting the IMPORTED PRIVILEGES privilege to other roles
Implement and manage future grants including restrictions
Manage warehouse grants (for example, USAGE, OPERATE, MODIFY, MONITOR)
Implement and manage managed access schemas
Provide access to non-account Administrators to monitor billing and usage information
Manage account-level permissions
Enable security and access control for AI/ML models
Opting out of Snowflake AI features
1.5 Set up and manage Snowflake authentication.
Establish federated authentication and Single Sign-on (SSO) to Snowflake: Configure an Identity Provider (IdP) for Snowflake
Configuring an Identity Provider for Snowflake
Overview of federated authentication and SSO
Establish federated authentication and Single Sign-on (SSO) to Snowflake: Configure, use, and manage federated authentication with Snowflake
Managing federated authentication
Overview of federated authentication and SSO
Implement and manage passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA): Manage user types (PERSON, NULL and SERVICE)
Implement and manage passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA): Manage passwords and password policies
Implement and manage passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA): Manage user MFA enrollment
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Implement and manage passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA): Manage key-pair authentication and rotation
Key-pair authentication and key-pair rotation
Implement and manage passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA): Manage programmatic authentication tokens and rotation
Implement and manage passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA): Report on users who do not have MFA enabled
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Implement and manage passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA): Reset passwords and temporarily disable MFA for users
Configure and use OAuth protocols: Use OAuth 2.0 in Snowflake
Using OAuth 2.0 with Snowflake
Configure and use OAuth protocols: Compare Snowflake OAuth to External OAuth
Configure and use OAuth protocols: Configure Snowflake OAuth for custom clients
Configuring Snowflake OAuth for custom clients
Configure and use OAuth protocols: Analyze how Snowflake OAuth is impacted by federated authentication, network policies, and private connectivity
Using OAuth 2.0 with Snowflake
Activating network policies for users
1.6 Set up and manage network and private connectivity.
Establish network rules: Configure and manage network rules
Activating network policies for users
Establish network rules: Analyze network policy behavior when both account-level and user-level network rules exist
Establish private connectivity to Snowflake internal stages and the Snowflake service: Implement and manage cloud provider interfaces and private endpoints for internal stages
Establish private connectivity to Snowflake internal stages and the Snowflake service: Manage private connectivity between cloud providers and Snowflake
Strategies for protecting both service and internal stage
Secure and Integrate the Snowflake SQL API
Authenticating SQL API requests
1.7 Set up and manage security administration and authorization.
Use and monitor SCIM: Analyze SCIM and its use cases as they relate to Snowflake
Use and monitor SCIM: Manage users and groups with SCIM
Use and monitor SCIM: Enable, configure, and manage SCIM integration
CREATE SECURITY INTEGRATION (SCIM)
Prevent data exfiltration with PREVENT_UNLOAD_TO_INLINE_URL and REQUIRE_STORAGE_INTEGRATION_FOR_STAGE_CREATION
How to configure a Snowflake account to prevent data exfiltration
Manage service accounts, API integration, and automated authentication (for example, key-pair authentication)
Key-pair authentication and key-pair rotation
REST_EVENT_HISTORY table function
Manage access to AI features and models
Opting out of Snowflake AI features
Domain 2.0: Account Management and Data Governance
2.1 Manage organizations and accounts.
Evaluate the benefits and costs of using a Snowflake Organization
Perform organizational tasks: Create and name an organization
Managing accounts in your organization
Perform organizational tasks: Name various types of organization accounts
Perform organizational tasks: Identify which regions are available for a given organization
Perform account tasks: View, create, and list accounts
Managing accounts in your organization
Perform account tasks: Change account names
Manage Tri-Secret Secure
Understanding encryption key management in Snowflake
Manage encryption keys in Snowflake: Describe how Snowflake encrypts customer data
Understanding encryption key management in Snowflake
Manage encryption keys in Snowflake: Describe encryption key rotation and periodic rekeying configuration
Understanding encryption key management in Snowflake
Manage account-level parameters and features (Enable Cortex AI features for users)
Opting out of Snowflake AI features
2.2 Implement and manage data governance in Snowflake.
Protect sensitive data with security policies: Implement column-level security using data masking policies
Use cases for Dynamic Data Masking
Protect sensitive data with security policies: Use external tokenization
Protect sensitive data with security policies: Evaluate the use of data masking versus external tokenization based on business requirements
Protect sensitive data with security policies: Configure a row access policy on an object
Introduction to row access policies
Protect sensitive data with security policies: Compare row access policies to secure views
Introduction to row access policies
Protect sensitive data with security policies: Identify the impact of attaching a row access policy to an object
Materialized views and column-level security
Audit access history using the ACCESS_HISTORY views
ACCESS_HISTORY view (Account Usage)
Use tagging and classification in Snowflake: Identify tagging use cases
Use tagging and classification in Snowflake: Implement and manage tagging
About object tagging propagation
Use tagging and classification in Snowflake: Implement tag-based masking policies
Limitations of tag-based masking policies
Use tagging and classification in Snowflake: Implement data classification (EXTRACT_SEMANTIC_CATEGORIES, ASSOCIATE_SEMANTIC_CATEGORIES)
Introduction to data classification
Manage data governance through Snowsight: Configuring and monitor tags
Manage data governance through Snowsight: Implement and manage Trust Center
Getting started with the Trust Center
Manage Horizon Catalog, Universal Search, and Data Lineage
2.3 Given a scenario, manage account identifiers.
Differentiate between account names and account locators
Identify when a given account identifier needs to be used
Specifying the account name when connecting to Snowflake
Use region IDs and region groups
Region support for replication and failover
Domain 3.0: Data and Object Management
3.1 Given business requirements, design, manage, and maintain virtual warehouses.
Analyze the impact on data loading and query processing based on warehouse sizes and types
Configure warehouse properties (auto-suspend, auto-resume, max clusters)
Given a scenario, manage warehouse usage in sessions, and size the warehouse accordingly
Given a scenario, manage a multi-cluster warehouse: Determine use cases and benefits
Given a scenario, manage a multi-cluster warehouse: Implement and maintain a scaling policy
Given a scenario, manage a multi-cluster warehouse: Monitor multi-cluster warehouses
3.2 Given a scenario, manage databases, tables, and views.
Manage tables: Analyze table design considerations
Micro-partitions and data clustering
Manage tables: Implement Snowflake table structures and types
Working with temporary and transient tables
Manage tables: Create and manage external tables
Introduction to external tables
Manage tables: Create and manage iceberg tables
Introduction to Iceberg tables
Automatic refresh for Iceberg tables
Implement and manage views, secure views, and materialized views
Materialized views and column-level security
Identify use cases for cloning databases and tables
Access control privileges for cloned objects
3.3 Given a scenario, stage data in Snowflake.
Create and manage Snowflake storage integration: External stages
Configuring a storage integration to access Amazon S3
Create and manage Snowflake storage integration: Data exfiltration
How to configure a Snowflake account to prevent data exfiltration
Create and manage EXTERNAL_VOLUME with Iceberg tables
External volumes for Iceberg tables
Create and configure the Polaris Catalog
Getting started with Snowflake Open Catalog
CREATE CATALOG INTEGRATION (Snowflake Open Catalog)
3.4 Given a scenario, manage tasks.
Configure tasks: Manage and schedule tasks
Configure tasks: Set permissions for creating and executing tasks
Task ownership and execution privileges
Configure tasks: Troubleshoot task historical runs
Configure tasks: Identify use cases
Differentiate between user-managed and Snowflake-managed tasks and identify use cases.
3.5 Perform queries in Snowflake.
Use Snowflake sequences and identify limitations
Use persisted query results
Cancel statements for single users or multiple users
Use query history filters including client-generated queries and queries executed by user tasks
QUERY_HISTORY view (Account Usage)
Visualize query results with Snowsight: Use Snowsight dashboards to monitor activity
Visualize query results with Snowsight: Share worksheets and dashboards
Visualize query results with Snowsight: Generate and share Snowsight charts
Visualize query results with Snowsight: Identify constraints with sharing a Snowsight chart
Visualize query results with Snowsight: Recover dropped dashboards
Domain 4.0: Performance Monitoring and Tuning
4.1 Monitor and analyze Snowflake performance.
Evaluate and interpret Query Profiles to improve performance: Analyze the components of the Query Profile (Steps, Operator tree, Operator nodes, Operator types)
Analyzing queries using query profile
Evaluate and interpret Query Profiles to improve performance: Compare compile versus runtime optimizations
Analyzing queries using query profile
Evaluate and interpret Query Profiles to improve performance: Identify and create efficient queries (Articulate the execution path, Use effective joining conditions, Perform grouping, sorting, and ordering)
Analyzing queries using query profile
Evaluate and interpret Query Profiles to improve performance: Troubleshoot common query performance issues
Analyzing queries using query profile
Evaluate and interpret Query Profiles to improve performance: Identify impact and solutions for data spilling
Analyzing queries using query profile
Evaluate and interpret Query Profiles to improve performance: Identify impact and solutions if data pruning is not happening
Micro-partitions and data clustering
Evaluate and interpret Query Profiles to improve performance: Identify the various timeout parameters
Use an explain plan
Compare and contrast different caching techniques and the impact of caching on performance: Result cache
Compare and contrast different caching techniques and the impact of caching on performance: Local disk (warehouse) cache (Explain the impact on the local disc cache when a warehouse is suspended or resumed)
Compare and contrast different caching techniques and the impact of caching on performance: Metadata cache
Analyzing queries using query profile
Implement performance improvements: Recommend the use of materialized views
Materialized views and column-level security
Implement performance improvements: Use the search optimization service
Using the search optimization service
Implement performance improvements: Create external tables
Introduction to external tables
Implement performance improvements: Use data caching
Implement performance improvements: Use the query acceleration service
Using the Query Acceleration Service
4.2 Manage DML locking and concurrency in Snowflake.
Analyze DML concurrency considerations
Implement best practices for DML locking and concurrency
Transactions: resource locking
Monitor and manage transaction activity
4.3 Given a scenario, implement resource monitors.
Create and manage resource monitors based on use cases and business requirements
Working with resource monitors
Set up a dashboard to monitor Snowflake costs
4.4 Enable and manage logging and tracing.
Manage event tables: Consider the use of default system event tables compared to custom tables
Monitoring and logging for event tables
Manage event tables: Configure event tables
Monitoring and logging for event tables
Manage event tables: Set levels for logs, metrics and tracing
Analyze event tables for system health indicators
Monitoring and logging for event tables
Logging and tracing limitations
Use log data to monitor user activity, threat detection, and access control (Create alerts)
Use log trace data to perform root cause analyses
Monitoring and logging for event tables
Use log trace data to optimize performance
Analyzing queries using query profile
4.5 Manage and optimize costs.
Manage organization costs: Differentiate use cases for the ACCOUNT_USAGE and ORGANIZATION_USAGE views
Manage organization costs: Monitor accounts and usage (Use the ORGANIZATION_USAGE schema in the SNOWFLAKE shared database)
Manage organization costs: Monitor and calculate data transfer costs and replication costs
Manage organization costs: Calculate data storage usage and credit consumption
Understanding data storage costs
Manage organization costs: Apply techniques for cost optimization
Evaluate use cases for the ACCOUNT_USAGE and INFORMATION_SCHEMA: Views available from the INFORMATION_SCHEMA
Evaluate use cases for the ACCOUNT_USAGE and INFORMATION_SCHEMA: Latency and data retention considerations
Evaluate use cases for the ACCOUNT_USAGE and INFORMATION_SCHEMA: Latency for historical views
Manage costs for virtual warehouses: Determine when warehouses should be suspended or resumed based on cost and pricing
Warehouse suspension and resumption
Manage costs for virtual warehouses: Calculate warehouse usage and credit consumption (Demonstrate cost saving strategies, Calculate and minimize IDLE time cost)
WAREHOUSE_METERING_HISTORY view
Manage costs for virtual warehouses: Use Budgets
Monitor credit usage with budgets
Manage costs for virtual warehouses: Use WAREHOUSE_MONITORING to optimize costs
Working with resource monitors
Manage costs for virtual warehouses: Monitor and assess automatic clustering usage
Micro-partitions and data clustering
Manage costs for serverless and AI features: Analyze how Snowflake credits are consumed by the cloud services layer (such as Snowpipe, materialized views, and automatic clustering)
Manage costs for serverless and AI features: Monitor AI and ML function costs
AI cost management and governance
Manage costs for serverless and AI features: Monitor Notebooks consumption
Manage costs for serverless and AI features: Monitor AI usage and costs
AI cost management and governance
Domain 5.0: Data Sharing and Snowflake Marketplace
5.1 Implement and manage data sharing.
Given a scenario, implement sharing solutions: Evaluate different sharing models (one to one, one to many, private, public)
Given a scenario, implement sharing solutions: Share data among different Snowflake editions
Given a scenario, implement sharing solutions: Configure cross-region and cross-cloud data sharing (Explain the role of replications, Use Cross-cloud auto fulfillment for listings, Use Cross-cloud Data Governance)
Secure data sharing across regions and platforms
Given a scenario, implement sharing solutions: Configure data sharing programmatically (Share different types of data objects including secure functions, Determine the role of context functions in data sharing)
Manage data providers and consumers: Create and maintain outbound data shares
Manage data providers and consumers: Share objects securely in a data share (for example, what type to use)
Manage data providers and consumers: Identify use cases for views and secure views
Manage data providers and consumers: Share data with secure User-defined Functions (UDFs)
Manage data providers and consumers: Create and maintain reader accounts (Create user and role for access, Create resource monitors, Create objects, Determine if there is a need to store data (CREATE DATABASE))
CREATE ACCOUNT (reader account)
Manage data providers and consumers: Import and maintain inbound data shares
Getting started as a data consumer
Configure and manage Snowflake Data Clean Rooms: Install the clean room native app
Installing and managing data clean rooms
Configure and manage Snowflake Data Clean Rooms: Bring users into the clean room
Installing and managing data clean rooms
Configure and manage Snowflake Data Clean Rooms: Manage collaborators
Installing and managing data clean rooms
5.2 Implement and manage the Snowflake Marketplace
Access the public and internal Marketplace
Determine use cases for internal versus public data listings
Manage the process of becoming a data provider (Create, edit, or delete provider profiles)
Create, submit, manage, and modify a data listing
Manage listings and listing requests
Monitor data sharing usage
LISTING_CONSUMPTION_DAILY view
Manage Native Apps
Domain 6.0: Disaster Recovery, Backup, and Data Replication
6.1 Manage data replication.
Differentiate the use cases for primary and secondary databases
Introduction to replication and failover
Replicate database objects
Database replication: parameters
Replicate account-level objects
Configuring account replication
Analyze the impact of replication on access controls
Replicating SAML2 security integrations
Perform account replication
Configuring account replication
Enable scheduled replication
Configuring account replication
Differentiate between replication Groups and failover groups
Replication group and failover group constraints
Given a scenario, determine account replication considerations with respect to the different Snowflake editions (Replicate data to a lower Snowflake edition)
Configuring account replication
Identify key-considerations for account replications
Introduction to replication and failover
Analyze the impact of account replication on: Automatic clustering, Materialized views, External tables, Policies (masking and row access) and tags, Streams and tasks, Stages, pipes, and clones objects, Historical usage data, Iceberg tables
Database replication considerations: automatic clustering
Replication and automatic clustering
Replication: skip event tables and hybrid tables during refresh operation
Analyze the impact of database failover across multiple accounts
Introduction to replication and failover
Analyze the impact of database failover and failback on schemas
Database replication: parameters
Redirect client connections in case of a failover
General connection configuration
Design and implement disaster recovery and business continuity plans (Identify the appropriate failover or failback procedure)
Introduction to replication and failover
Implement best practices for backups in Snowflake
6.2 Given a scenario, manage Snowflake Time Travel and Fail-safe.
Establish data retention periods
MIN_DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS parameter
Query historical data
Restore dropped objects
Enable or disable Time Travel (Analyze Snowflake edition implications for Time Travel)
MIN_DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS parameter
Wrapping Up SnowPro Advanced: Administrator
This guide covered all six ADA-C02 domains, from RBAC and data governance to performance tuning, data sharing, and disaster recovery. Working through each linked resource will help you build the hands-on confidence needed to pass the SnowPro Advanced: Administrator exam and manage Snowflake environments with authority. You can also explore more Snowflake certification study guides on the Snowflake Certification category to keep building your skills. Have a question or tip? Leave a comment below.
Receive Updates on SnowPro Advanced: Administrator Exam
Want to be notified as soon as I post? Subscribe to the RSS feed / leave your email address in the subscribe section. Share the article to your social networks with the below links so it can benefit others.
