Role hierarchy in Snowflake - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What is a role hierarchy in Snowflake?

A role hierarchy in Snowflake is a way to organize roles so that higher roles inherit the permissions of roles below them, making permission management easier.

beginner

How does inheritance work in Snowflake role hierarchy?

When a role is granted to another role, the higher role inherits all the privileges of the lower role automatically.

beginner

Why use role hierarchy instead of assigning permissions directly to users?

Role hierarchy simplifies permission management by grouping permissions into roles and assigning roles to users, reducing errors and making updates easier.

intermediate

What is the top role in Snowflake's default role hierarchy?

The top role is ACCOUNTADMIN, which has all privileges and can grant roles to others.

intermediate

How can you view the role hierarchy in Snowflake?

You can query the SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.GRANTS_TO_ROLES view or use SHOW GRANTS commands to see role grants and hierarchy.

What happens when Role A is granted to Role B in Snowflake?

A Role A inherits all privileges of Role B

B Both roles lose their privileges

C Role B inherits all privileges of Role A

D No privileges are shared

Granting Role A to Role B means Role B inherits Role A's privileges.

Which role is at the top of Snowflake's default role hierarchy?

A ACCOUNTADMIN

B PUBLIC

C SYSADMIN

D SECURITYADMIN

ACCOUNTADMIN is the highest role with all privileges.

Why is using role hierarchy recommended over assigning permissions directly to users?

A It duplicates permissions unnecessarily

B It removes all permissions automatically

C It disables user access

D It makes permission management simpler and less error-prone

Role hierarchy groups permissions, making management easier and safer.

How can you check which roles have been granted to a specific role?

A Use ALTER USER command

B Use SHOW GRANTS TO ROLE command

C Use DROP ROLE command

D Use CREATE ROLE command

SHOW GRANTS TO ROLE lists roles and privileges granted to that role.

If a user has a role that inherits from another role, what permissions does the user have?

A Permissions of the assigned role and all roles it inherits from

B Only the permissions of the assigned role

C No permissions at all

D Permissions only from the lowest role

Users get permissions from their role and all roles granted to it.

Explain how role hierarchy helps manage permissions in Snowflake.

Think about how grouping permissions into roles helps control access.

Describe how to find out which roles a specific role inherits from in Snowflake.

Use Snowflake commands or views that show role grants.