Snowpro Advanced Architect · Free Practice Question Medium

Question 27

A critical daily report query starts experiencing significantly longer execution times. Upon inspecting the Query Profile, you notice a high percentage of time spent in the "Local Disk Spilling" phase. Question: What is the most common cause of "Local Disk Spilling" and a recommended immediate action to mitigate it?
  • A The query is accessing too many micro-partitions; enable the Search Optimization Service.
  • B Insufficient network bandwidth; increase your internet speed.
  • C The warehouse is too small for the query's memory requirements; increase the warehouse size.
  • D Auto-suspend is set too low, causing cold starts.
Reveal correct answer

Correct answer: C

Explanation

✅ The warehouse is too small for the query's memory requirements; increase the warehouse size.

Explanation:

Local Disk Spilling occurs when Snowflake cannot fit an operation in memory, causing data to spill onto local disk storage. This significantly slows down query execution. The most common cause is insufficient memory in the virtual warehouse.

Recommended Immediate Action:

  • Increase the warehouse size → A larger warehouse provides more memory and local disk space, reducing spillage and improving query performance.

  • Optimize the query → Consider partition pruning, reducing unnecessary columns, and breaking large queries into smaller steps.

For more details, check the official Snowflake documentation on resolving memory spillage.

❌ Why the other options are incorrect?

Insufficient network bandwidth; increase your internet speed.
→ Incorrect, because network bandwidth does not affect local disk spilling, which is a memory issue.

The query is accessing too many micro-partitions; enable the Search Optimization Service.
→ Incorrect, because Search Optimization improves filtering performance, but does not resolve memory-related disk spilling.

Auto-suspend is set too low, causing cold starts.
→ Incorrect, because cold starts affect warehouse startup time, but do not cause local disk spilling.

Discussion

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