SnowPro Advanced Data Engineer Certification Exam (DEA-C02)

Exam Code: DEA-C02

SnowPro®Advanced: Data Engineer (DEA-C02) certification:

Exam Overview

• Target Skills: Advanced data engineering in Snowflake—sourcing, transforming, replicating data across clouds, near-real-time streaming, scalable compute, performance tuning, and metrics evaluation.
• Prerequisite Experience: Recommended 2+ years of production data engineering experience.

Exam Logistics

• Exam Code: DEA-C02
• Length: 65 questions, timed at 115 minutes.
• Cost: USD?375 per attempt.
• Passing Score: A scaled score of 750 on a 0–1000 scale.

Domain Breakdown & Weighting

Based on the official syllabus and exam prep resources.

Coverage Includes:

• Data Movement: Ingesting/loading diverse formats, configuring Snowpipe and pipelines, using connectors, external tables, data sharing.
• Performance Optimization: Tuning queries, scaling warehouses, caching, clustering, materialized views, query acceleration, monitoring pipelines.
• Storage & Data Protection: Time Travel, Fail-safe, replication, micro-partitions, cloning.
• Data Governance: Tagging, classification, lineage, masking, RBAC, row-level security, clean rooms.
• Data Transformation: UDFs/UDTFs/UDAFs, external functions, stored procedures (Snowpark/SQL/JS), semi/unstructured data, Snowpark DataFrames.

Note: The DEA-C02 exam, introduced on February 18, 2025, updates the former DEA-C01 content: domain 4 is now “Data Governance” instead of “Security,” with added emphasis on dynamic tables, unstructured data ingestion, Iceberg external tables, etc.

Preparation Strategies

Official Study Guide: Available via Snowflake’s training platform—includes exam objectives and study outlines.

• Practice Exams:
• Udemy – several up-to-date DEA-C02 question banks (e.g., by Cris Garcia & Javier Castellitto) covering all domains with explanations.
• VMExam & ExamTopics – offer timed mocks simulating actual exam format
• Community Feedback :
• Practice focused on UDFs, Snowpark, caching, semi-structured data, pipelines, and governance.
• Warning: unofficial resources vary in accuracy—some errors noted, particularly in third-party dumps.

Summary

You're looking at a 65-question, 115-minute exam weighing around USD375, requiring a scaled score 750. It dives deep into five key areas—with a heavy focus on data movement and transformation.

Recommended approach:

1. Study the official DEA-C02 study guide, paying attention to newly added topics (dynamic tables, Iceberg, etc.).
2. Take multiple timed practice tests across the domains.
3. Review Snowflake docs on core topics—especially UDFs, Snowpark, pipelines, and governance.