What is the passing score for the Snowflake SnowPro Core exam?

The SnowPro Core (COF-C03) certification exam passing score is 750 or higher on a scaled score range of 0 to 1000.

Is CloudPrep affiliated with Snowflake Inc.?

No. Snowflake® and SnowPro® are registered trademarks of Snowflake Inc. CloudPrep is an independent educational platform and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Snowflake Inc.

Which of the following features is included in the Snowflake Standard Edition?

Always-on Enterprise grade encryption at rest and in transit — Standard Edition includes always-on enterprise-grade encryption (AES-256), 1 day of Time Travel, and Secure Data Sharing. It does not include Materialized Views, Multi-cluster Warehouses, or up to 90 days of Time Travel.

Which two key features are introduced in the Enterprise Edition that are NOT available in Standard Edition?

Time Travel up to 90 days and Multi-cluster Warehouses — Enterprise Edition introduces Multi-cluster Warehouses for concurrency scaling, Materialized Views, and extends Time Travel retention up to 90 days.

A company anticipates severe spikes in concurrent users at month-end reporting and wants Snowflake to automatically spin up additional compute clusters to handle the load without manual intervention. What is the minimum Snowflake edition required?

Enterprise Edition — To use Multi-cluster Warehouses for automatic concurrency scaling, the minimum required edition is Enterprise.

Domain: Snowflake Features & Architecture

September 2026 · 583 words · 10 min read

Snowflake Editions

Overview

Snowflake offers different editions to cater to various organizational needs, ranging from basic analytics to highly secure, globally distributed enterprise deployments. The SnowPro Core (COF-C03) exam will heavily test your ability to differentiate between these editions, particularly regarding which features require Enterprise edition or higher.

Key Concepts

Snowflake provides four primary editions. Each successive edition builds on the features of the previous one.

1. Standard Edition

The entry-level offering that provides full access to Snowflake's standard architecture.

Complete SQL data warehouse.
Always-on encryption at rest and in transit.
Federated authentication / SSO.
Time Travel: Up to 1 day (0-1 day).
Fail-safe: 7 days (non-configurable, for permanent tables only, recovered only by Snowflake Support).
Secure Data Sharing.
Snowflake Cortex AI functions (availability may vary by region).

2. Enterprise Edition

Designed for large-scale enterprises with higher concurrency and longer data retention needs. Includes everything in Standard, plus:

Multi-Cluster Warehouses (MCW): Crucial for auto-scaling concurrency.
Extended Time Travel: Up to 90 days for permanent tables. (Note: Transient/Temporary tables remain at 0-1 day max).
Materialized Views.
Search Optimization Service.
Dynamic Data Masking & Row-Level Security.
Annual re-keying of encrypted data.

3. Business Critical Edition (formerly Enterprise for Sensitive Data)

Designed for organizations with extreme security and compliance requirements (e.g., HIPAA, PCI DSS). Includes everything in Enterprise, plus:

Tri-Secret Secure (Customer-Managed Keys): You can bring your own encryption keys.
AWS PrivateLink / Azure Private Link / Google Cloud Private Service Connect: Secure private networking, bypassing the public internet.
Database Failover and Failback: For disaster recovery across regions/clouds.

4. Virtual Private Snowflake (VPS)

The highest level of security. Includes everything in Business Critical, plus:

Completely isolated environment: A dedicated set of cloud resources (metadata layer, compute, and storage) that does not share infrastructure with any other Snowflake accounts.
Data cannot be shared with non-VPS accounts.

Feature Comparison Table

| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |

| Multi-Cluster Warehouses | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |

| Materialized Views | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |

| Dynamic Data Masking | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |

| Customer-Managed Keys (Tri-Secret) | No | No | Yes | Yes |

| Database Failover | No | No | Yes | Yes |

| Dedicated Metadata/Infrastructure | No | No | No | Yes |

Exam Tips

⚠️ Crucial for COF-C03:

Multi-Cluster Warehouses: Only available in Enterprise and higher.
Time Travel: 90 days requires Enterprise. Standard is limited to 1 day.
Tri-Secret Secure / PrivateLink: Requires Business Critical.
Failover/Disaster Recovery: Requires Business Critical.
Know that choosing a higher edition generally means paying a higher price per compute credit.

Key Takeaways

Editions are cumulative (each tier includes the features of the lower tiers).
Standard is for basic needs (1 day time travel).
Enterprise adds performance (MCW) and governance (Masking, 90-day time travel).
Business Critical focuses on network security (PrivateLink) and compliance (Tri-Secret).
VPS provides physical infrastructure isolation.