Yesterday was the big day. My first attempt to become a certified SnowPro Core Expert and I would like to share my experience with you.

In this article, I will attempt to describe my experience during the exam, what to expect and provide some guidelines for you to be fully prepared for your big day.

Structure of the Exam

Firstly, as in every exam you are about to deliver you want to know the structure of the exam and its practicals. 

The exam consists of 100 questions that expect you to have a thorough knowledge of:

• Data Loading and Transformation in Snowflake
• Virtual Warehouse Performance and Concurrency
• DDL and DML Queries
• Using Semi-Structured and Unstructured Data
• Cloning and Time Travel
• Data Sharing
• Snowflake Account Structure and Management

It also covers Snowflake architectural principles and best practices and core aspects of Snowflake solutions including Data Loading/Unloading, Performance and Concurrency, Scaling, Security, Data types, Connectors, and Account Management.

The table below lists the main content domains and their weighting ranges, you will encounter in the exam:

You have at your disposal 120 mins, which is the official available time. But, if you are a non-native English speaker living in a non-English-speaking country then you receive an additional of 30 mins, in total 150 mins. Personally, I finished in half the time, and I took the rest of it to review all of my answers. It is more than enough. 

The format of the questions is multiple choice and multiple selections of choices. Last but not least, the scoring. You need to score 750 out of 1000 to reach the desirable score.

To answer some more personal questions regarding my experience with the exam:
I took it remotely. Someone can ask also if I encountered any surprises or any topics that I didn’t know, and the answer is yes. However, the exam interface is designed in a way that you can flag the questions which you are unsure about and come back to those questions at the end. Sometimes the text or choices in the following question help you answer the earlier questions.

Preparation

For someone that has little or no experience with Data Engineering and data Cloud Platforms, like me, entering the Snowflake universe might seem overwhelming at the first glance. However, the Core certification is not going very deep into the concepts. It requires to understand the basic principles and key concepts that Snowflake is based upon. By constructing a reading strategy and following key steps you can achieve the maximum results. 

As the Core exam is a requirement for diving into more advanced data engineering in snowflake there are many people out there that have shared their personal experiences and provided a rich amount of materials to prepare yourself for the big day.

A short list of how to:

• Snowflake Documentation is your friend! 
  
  Tip: Create a free trial account that is valid for 30 days and practice what you read in the documentation, follow the examples, and try to understand the concepts that are described.

• The SnowPro Core Study Guide [COF – CO2]. The official study guide from Snowflake takes you through all the concepts required to pass the exam. You can find it here. Create a free Community account and download the study guide.

• The Snowflake University (LevelUp Series & Snowflake Essentials).

• The ‘’Snowflake: The Definitive Guide. Architecting, Designing, and Deploying on the Snowflake Data Cloud.’’ book, written by Joyce Kay Avila, a certified Snowflake and Data Superhero. I found it very handy and easy to read and understand the concepts I had to tackle. 
  
  Tip: I would strongly recommend you purchase it. If you prepare yourself with that at the end of the day you will have saved money from your second attempt.
  She has also a series of short videos where she explains briefly all the domains you must be familiar with to pass the official exam.

• Last but not least, I found a lot of online preparation tests. Some also follow the same structure as the actual exam. 
  They can be found here:
  – In Udemy, with 6 practice tests. I strongly suggest it since it gives you a comprehensive explanation for every wrong answer you give.
  – In Quizlet, with flipping cards. 
  – In the Examtopics, with a lot of questions as well. But, be careful because some answers are wrong, and/or need to double-check them afterward.

If you follow these steps you are in a very good position to succeed in the exam. 

Ready?

If you feel ready you can register yourself here, on the official Snowflake webpage. By following the instructions you can book an available timeslot for your exam day and time. 

Best of luck! 

May the SnowForce be with you!