Data lineage tracking in Snowflake - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What is data lineage tracking in Snowflake?

Data lineage tracking is the process of recording the origin, movement, and transformation of data within Snowflake. It helps understand where data comes from, how it changes, and where it goes.

intermediate

Which Snowflake feature helps track data lineage automatically?

Snowflake's Information Schema and Account Usage views provide metadata about queries, tables, and objects, which can be used to track data lineage.

beginner

Why is data lineage important in cloud data platforms like Snowflake?

Data lineage ensures data quality, helps with troubleshooting, supports compliance, and improves trust by showing how data flows and changes over time.

intermediate

How can you use Snowflake's QUERY_HISTORY view for data lineage?

QUERY_HISTORY shows past queries with details on input and output tables. By analyzing it, you can see which tables were read or written, helping trace data flow.

advanced

What is a best practice for maintaining accurate data lineage in Snowflake?

Use consistent naming conventions, document transformations, and regularly audit metadata views like QUERY_HISTORY and INFORMATION_SCHEMA to keep lineage clear and reliable.

What does data lineage tracking help you understand in Snowflake?

A Where data comes from and how it changes

B How to write SQL queries faster

C How to create user accounts

D How to backup data manually

Data lineage tracking shows the origin and transformation of data, not query speed or user management.

Which Snowflake view contains information about past queries useful for data lineage?

A SESSION_LOGS

B USER_ACCOUNTS

C STORAGE_USAGE

D QUERY_HISTORY

QUERY_HISTORY contains details about executed queries, including input and output tables.

Why is data lineage important for compliance?

A It deletes old data

B It shows how data is handled and transformed

C It encrypts data automatically

D It speeds up data loading

Data lineage helps prove data handling processes meet compliance requirements.

Which Snowflake metadata schema helps with data lineage?

A DATA_SCHEMA

B USER_SCHEMA

C INFORMATION_SCHEMA

D LOG_SCHEMA

INFORMATION_SCHEMA provides metadata about tables, views, and other objects.

What is a good practice to keep data lineage clear?

A Use consistent naming and document transformations

B Avoid using metadata views

C Delete query history frequently

D Store data only in external files

Consistent naming and documentation help maintain clear and reliable data lineage.

Explain how Snowflake's QUERY_HISTORY view can be used to track data lineage.

Think about how queries read and write tables.

Describe why data lineage tracking is important in cloud data platforms like Snowflake.

Consider the benefits of knowing data origins and changes.