How to become a SnowPro - Nimbus Intelligence

I took the SnowPro Core Certification exam.

I will make some observations and give some advice on how I approached preparing for the exam and how I would approach it if I were to take it again after seeing the content of the test.

Preparation

The initial approach was to read what the exam consisted of, what the content was, also the exam rules and the score to be achieved (750.00 + on a scale between 0 and 1000:

The syllabus covered consists of 6 domains.
The questions concerning each domain are not equal in number, there are, in fact, domains that have a greater weight, a deemed greater importance and therefore a greater number of questions devoted to them. In light of this, given the amount of time available, I concentrated more on the domains most represented.

My preparation came mainly from reading parts of the book «Snowflake: The Definitive Guide : Architecting, Designing, and Deploying on the Snowflake Data Cloud» and from the simulations that were made available on Udemy.
I had 6 of them with about 90 questions each.

Teamwork

I did the first simulations with the help of the official Snowflake documentation as I was not very familiar with some of the technicalities.
The results, despite the documentation help, were not very satisfactory (around 65% compared to the 75% required to pass the test).

Over the next few days, I used the simulations to get more food for thought and deeper study. From one question I tried to go deeper, again on the documentation but also by comparing myself with my Academy mates.

I would say that the comparison was fundamental to grasp nuances that I would not have grasped on my own, to get a broader picture of certain topics and to make connections between topics that I would not have been able to make on my own.
So it was important to have the guidance of someone who certainly knows a lot more than me (my teacher), but it was equally impactful to have the comparison with my classmates.

I then began a full immersion in the simulations and the results got better and better (I even managed to get 90% of the answers right) and I consolidated some of my knowledge by consolidating further knowledge around the core of notions I already had.

Exam

The exam presented a part of questions aligned (in terms of methodology and topics) with what I had seen in the simulations, and a part of topics that I had not been able to focus on.

Specifically, going back to the division of domains, I realised that I did not have in-depth knowledge on

Data Protection and Data Sharing
Data transformation (despite its considerable weight)

I found quite a few questions on Information Schema and Account Usage, very detailed, asking about the specific use of views in the Schema.
In the section on Data Loading and Unloading I came across the treatment of unstructured Data and directory tables which I found not very easy.

Hints

Personally, if I had to give advice on preparation for a future candidate I would say that the approach changes depending on the time you have available:

A lot of time: do a lot of hands-on experience using Snowflake and trying to study every aspect in depth, perhaps starting by poking around on Snowsight and seeing all the options it makes available, then moving on to real or verisimilar applications on which you can then develop all the real development side by side with theoretical study.
Plenty of time: make a thorough study of the documentation, which is vast and very clear!
Enough time: help yourself to the book, which I found less in-depth than the documentation, but which is nevertheless a very useful vademecum. I used Snowflake – Definitive Guide by …
Not so much time: Proceed with the exam simulations and then delve into the theoretical topics related to the questions with greater frequency.