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Snowflake · SF-ADM · Advanced

SnowPro Advanced: Administrator (ADA-C02)

Validates advanced knowledge for applying comprehensive data cloud administrative principles using Snowflake including security, governance, and performance tuning. 65+ AI-generated practice questions with explanations. Free trial, pass guarantee.

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65 Questions
115min Time Limit
750/ 1000 Pass Score
$375 USD Exam Fee

Overview

About the exam

The SnowPro Advanced: Administrator Certification (ADA-C02) validates expertise in Snowflake account administration, including managing and monitoring accounts, enforcing data security and compliance, handling database objects and virtual warehouses, performance tuning, data sharing via Marketplace and Exchange, and implementing disaster recovery and replication strategies. It covers the full operational scope of a Snowflake administrator.

This certification is designed for database administrators, cloud administrators, and data platform operators with two or more years of Snowflake administration experience. It demonstrates the ability to maintain secure, performant, and compliant Snowflake environments at enterprise scale and is essential for roles managing production deployments.

Exam Domains

What's on the exam

The exam consists of 65 questions — multiple-choice, multiple-select, and true/false — to be completed in 115 minutes. Questions cover five domains: Security & Role-Based Access Control (30%), Account Management & Data Governance (25%), Monitoring & Performance Tuning (20%), Disaster Recovery & Replication (15%), and Data Sharing & Marketplace (10%). A passing score is 750 out of 1000. Security questions carry the most weight — ensure deep mastery of RBAC and network policies.

Snowflake Security, RBAC, and User Administration 31%

Configure and manage roles, privileges, network policies, SSO, MFA, and user administration at enterprise scale.

Account Management & Data Governance 18%

Manage account parameters, organizations, resource monitors, data governance policies, and tagging.

Data and Object Management 15%

Manage databases, schemas, tables, views, stages, and other Snowflake objects. Handle storage and retention.

Performance Monitoring & Tuning 20%

Monitor warehouse utilization, query performance, resource consumption, and optimize system configuration.

Data Sharing and Snowflake Marketplace 7%

Configure and manage secure data sharing, reader accounts, and Snowflake Marketplace listings.

Disaster Recovery, Backup & Data Replication 9%

Implement failover, replication, Time Travel, Fail-safe, and business continuity strategies.

Format

What to expect

multiple choice
70%
multiple response
30%

Watch out

Where candidates struggle

Administrators who manage Snowflake through the UI exclusively often fail questions about SQL-based account management, programmatic role grants, network policy configurations, and resource monitor thresholds.

  1. 01
    Role Hierarchy — Not understanding the built-in role hierarchy (ACCOUNTADMIN > SECURITYADMIN > USERADMIN, ACCOUNTADMIN > SYSADMIN) and how custom roles inherit privileges leads to access control errors.
  2. 02
    Network Policies — Confusing account-level network policies with user-level policies and not knowing how IP allow/block lists interact causes security configuration question mistakes.
  3. 03
    Resource Monitors — Not knowing the difference between notify, suspend, and suspend-immediately actions on resource monitors — and that they only track credit usage, not storage — leads to cost management errors.
  4. 04
    Data Masking Policies — Mixing up Dynamic Data Masking (column-level, role-based) with Row Access Policies (row-level filtering) and not understanding policy assignment inheritance causes governance mistakes.
  5. 05
    Account Replication — Confusing database replication with account-level failover groups and not understanding which objects can be replicated leads to disaster recovery planning errors.

Details

Exam logistics

Delivered online via the Snowflake Certification Portal. Available in English and Japanese. The certification is valid for 2 years. Renewal requires recertification or continuing education credits. Exam fee is $375 USD. Prerequisite: active SnowPro Core certification.

Delivery Online proctored or onsite testing centers.
Retake policy No waiting period between attempts. Full registration fee required for each attempt.
Validity 2 years
Career outcomes Senior DBA, Cloud Data Administrator, Snowflake Platform Administrator, Data Governance Lead, Infrastructure Engineer.
Renewal Pass the current version of the SnowPro Advanced: Administrator exam to recertify every 2 years.
Study time ~80 hours
Official guide View on vendor site

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