The correct answer is D. The total number of micro-partitions that the operation will reference .
In Snowflake, EXPLAIN or EXPLAIN USING returns the logical execution plan for a SQL statement. The plan can include information about the operations Snowflake expects to perform, such as table scans, filters, joins, and estimated partitions involved in the query.
Why D is correct:
The explain plan can show partition-related information for table scan operations, including the number of partitions that may be scanned. This is useful for understanding how well Snowflake can prune micro-partitions.
Why the other options are incorrect:
A. EXPLAIN_PLAN does not provide a guaranteed predicted query runtime. Actual execution time depends on warehouse size, load, caching, pruning, and other runtime factors.
B. EXPLAIN_PLAN does not directly state the number of credits the query will consume. Credit consumption is based mainly on warehouse runtime and size.
C. EXPLAIN_PLAN describes the execution plan, not the actual result data type returned by the query.
Official Snowflake documentation reference:
Snowflake documentation explains that the EXPLAIN command displays the logical execution plan for a SQL statement. Query plans can include details about operations such as scans, joins, filters, and partitions.
[Reference: Snowflake Documentation — EXPLAIN; Snowflake Documentation — Query Profile and query optimization; SnowPro Core Study Guide — Performance Optimization., ==]
