Snowflake Exam SnowPro-Core Topic 5 Question 103 Discussion

In Snowflake, when a query execution requires more memory than what is available, Snowflake handles these situations by spilling the intermediate results to disk. This process is known as 'spilling.' The Query Profile in Snowflake includes a metric that helps users identify when and how much data spilling occurs during the execution of a query. This information is crucial for optimizing queries as excessive spilling can significantly slow down query performance. The value that provides this information about disk usage due to intermediate results not fitting in memory is appropriately labeled as 'Spilling' in the Query Profile.

Snowflake Documentation on Query Profile and Performance: This section explains the various components of the query profile, including the spilling metric, which indicates disk usage for operations where intermediate results exceed available memory.