Zero to Hero in Snowflake Certification : SNOWPRO Core Certified in 2–3 weeks
Introduction/Brief Why I like Snowflake : Myself Rajiv Gupta, working as architect and having more than 15 years of experience in Database. From Dec, 2020 I started my journey toward cloud technology. I got introduce to Snowflake from one of my senior folk as it was getting traction in Europe. What I like most of the Snowflake is its simplicity and easy to use. Lots of complex things like Zero copy clone, Time Travel, fail-safe was served as out-of-the-box services which take most of the time to set up in any normal data warehouse project.
Learning Support: One of the best thing Snowflake has done is they had properly constructed their Snowflake University support team. One can easily find the document in snowflake university related to each and every topic they are looking for. It caters to both high level and deep dive for any particular topic.
Is this blog intended for you? Well when I started looking for SNOWPRO certification I hardly find any one-stop shop where I can get end to end guide for below of my question:
Is it tough to learn Snowflake?
Is there any prerequisite required to learn Snowflake ? If yes what are they. Can I get some guidance on same.?
Where to start?
How to start?
Where to look if any issue?
What are support system available?
Are there any useful mock exam?
Is Udemy course really useful as those are not Snowflake certified?
How much we can trust the mock practice test question pattern in Udemy/other portal?
Do we need a credit card to register for a free trial account?
What will be the validity of the trial account?
What if my monthly trial expire ? How to continue using free if I want to for a few more days?
Is exam tough? What are the area where I have to focus more to clear my exam?
How to register for SNOWPRO? Can it be rescheduled in case I am not able to make on exam date? Other rules?
Is there any negative marking in the exam?
What are the patterns of question in exam? Does anybody clear exam recently who can help us?
How many days I need to prepare for this from scratch?
Is exam book bound, or we can expect a question out of course material?
Do we need to learn syntax to clear exam? Is there any practical lab in exam ?
What Not to expect in exam?
And many more…
So there was lots of question in my mind with no one to support me on the same. I started from scratch on Snowflake self-paced training. I am writing this blog to answer all those question which I was looking for or may be a lot of people will look in the future.
Furthermore, I am not going to write the definition or give you architecture of Snowflake those all are readily available in depth at Snowflake University.
Let’s start one by one.
Is there any prerequisite required to learn Snowflake ? If yes what are they. Can I get some guidance on same.?
Well this depends on your existing skill set. If you are from database/data warehouse background, or you have knowledge of ANSI SQL databases like Oracle, MS SQL, MySQL etc. It will be just another database with few minor changes to syntax which are propriety of Snowflake rest all are same. If not then just do any basic SQL database course from Udemy or any learning portal, and you are good to start.
Is it tough to learn Snowflake?
No, as far as I know Snowflake is not tough as compared to other programming language and retraining to Snowflake is quite straight forward if you have SQL knowledge.
Where to start?
Best place to start Snowflake learning is Snowflake Mindtickle University.
https://snowflakeuniversity.mindtickle.com/#/courses/recents
Register yourself with an email ID and get started. There are lots of course there, but I will guide you further below in what sequence you have to take up courses.
How to start?
Once you are register in Mindtickle. Go and start learning in below sequence. There are 3 hands-on lab workshops. Every workshop reward you in depth practical knowledge of Snowflake and at the end you have to submit your project, and then you will be awarded by Snowflake digital badges free of cost. Which you can showcase to anyone as that is available at Acclaim Portal.
Required
Level Up — First Concepts
Level Up — Performance
Level Up — Snowflake Data Marketplace
Badge Workshop 1: Data Warehousing
Badge Workshop 2: Data Sharing
Badge Workshop 3: Data Application Builders(To do this workshop you have to fill form in Badge Workshop 3: Orientation). This is yet not publicly available
Optional
Hands On Independent Topic Labs
SnowPro Cert Resources ⇾ Do this when you are done with all preparation and ready for certification.
Where to look if any issue?
For any Mindtickle portal related query : support@mindtickle.com / admin@mindtickle.com
For any Course related query : support@snowflake.com / uni@snowflake.com
What are support system available?
Above mentioned support email are first line of support. You can also get a lot of helps from online Snowflake community.
Please follow below steps to get yourself register to snowflake community.
https://community.snowflake.com/s/article/How-to-Register-in-the-Snowflake-Community-Lodge
Are there any useful mock exam?
Mock exam are always useful to test your readiness for exam provided they are not taken as exam Dumps. No dumps in market can grantee you 100% surety. Also, I personally don’t believe in reading dumps and then giving exams as it defeat the purpose of gaining certification by taking that route.
Is Udemy course really useful as those are not Snowflake certified?
There are plenty of course in Udemy for snowflake, but few are really nice to get you started. Some of them which I followed during my preparation.
Note: This is not paid advertisement, and I am sharing based on my personal choice if you like then opt for that else Snowflake University is our best friend.
Snowflake Decoded — Fundamentals and hands-on Training — This is very basic 4.5 hours training to get you feel of start.
Then you can follow Snowflake University for each and every topic.
https://docs.snowflake.com/en/
How much we can trust the mock practice test question pattern in Udemy/other portal?
The Mock exam is to check your readiness and no one grantee or gives any surety for getting the same question in the exam. But it's good to get the feel of pattern like multiple choice, objective etc. pattern and best thing is you get the knowledge check and based on that you can plan your external exam.
Do we need a credit card to register for a free trial account?
No, you don’t need credit card for Snowflake Trial Account creation. You can create your trial account from here.
What will be the validity of the trial account?
30 days.
What if my monthly trial expire ? How to continue using free if I want to for a few more days?
You can register again with a different cloud provider with the same email ID. How I know that is because in Mindtickle workshop itself they will ask you to get your self register to different cloud provider for all 3 workshop. I used my same email ID for all 3 workshop and I didn’t see any issue in any of them and I had not paid a single penny till now.
Is exam tough? What are the area where I have to focus more to clear my exam?
Depends on your preparation obliviously. SNOWPRO exam is book bound exam meaning you will not get any question out of Snowflake University material. I know Snowflake University is very vast, but you don’t have to go through each and every line. More details in further blog.
How to register for SNOWPRO? Can it be rescheduled in case I am not able to make on exam date? Other rules?
KRYTERION is the official test portal for Snowflake. You can choose to give it online (Online Proctored) or your nearest Kryterion Testing Center.
Rescheduling and Cancellation Policy: Allowed up to 72 hours prior to the scheduled exam date.
Launching Requirements: Links would be available in Webassessor under ‘My Assessments’ tab, 1 week prior to the exam date
· Bio-metric Authentication
· Installed Sentinel Secure
· Contact: If you experience technical difficulties during set-up, launch, or during your exam, you can contact KRYTERION Technical Support at +1–877–313–2008 or +1–602–659–4679
· How to Launch an Online Proctored (OLP) Exam: https://kryterion.force.com/support/s/article/Launching-your-Online-exam?language=en_US
· Contact Support Form: https://kryterion.force.com/support/s/contactsupport?language=en_US
· You can register yourself : https://www.webassessor.com/wa.do?page=defaultLogin
What are System requirement for online exam ? Is my system fit for Snowflake exam ?
You can do your system test for Snowflake here → https://www.kryteriononline.com/systemcheck/
Online Testing Requirements: What You Need to Know → https://kryterion.force.com/support/s/article/Online-Testing-Requirements?language=en_US
Is there any negative marking in the exam?
No Negative marking till date. But always look Snowflake Exam guidance as these things can change in due course of time.
What are the patterns of question in exam? Does anybody clear exam
recently who can help us?
I had given the exam in Mar,2021 and below are the patterns.
1> Multiple choice.
2> Choose 1
3> True /False
How many days I need to prepare for this from scratch?
That’s depends on your dedication but if you can put dedicated 2–3 hrs daily then 2–3 week is more than enough to prepare for exam.
Is exam book bound, or we can expect a question out of course material?
Exam is book bound and all question are within course material provided at Snowflake University
Do we need to learn syntax to clear exam? Is there any practical lab in exam ?
In exam, you will not get a question to write any syntax but yes you may get a question to correct any syntax or complete any incomplete syntax. Good to know all important object syntax.
What Not to expect in exam?
1> No question from below area :
2> Snowflake Connector for Kafka
3> No Scenario Based Question
4> Regions name for any cloud platform.
5> No question from external function, Stored Procedure etc.
Note: These are true as of my exam, and it may change in the future, so please refer to Snowflake exam guidelines current details
Watch below video for more details:
Hope this blog help you to get insight on how to prepare for SNOWPRO Core certification and all possible FAQ. Feel free to ask a question in the comment section if you have any doubts regarding this. Give a clap if you like the blog. Stay connected to see many more such cool stuff. Thanks for your support.
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