Which Snowflake parameter limits the number of iterations for a recursive CTE?

• A. Max Iterations
• B. Recursion Limit
• C. Max Recursions
• D. Max Loop

Answer: (C)

Recursive CTEs allow you to iterate over hierarchical data by repeatedly applying the recursive member, which can keep running until there’s no new data. To prevent endless looping, Snowflake offers a parameter that caps how many recursion steps can run for a given query. The setting that controls this is the maximum number of recursions. It’s a session-level parameter you can adjust for the current session or query, and it stops further recursion after the specified number of iterations. This makes recursion safe and predictable, especially when cycles or unexpected data paths could cause deep or infinite recursion. If you need deeper traversal, raise the limit; if you want to guard against excessive recursion, lower it. The other names aren’t the actual parameter Snowflake uses, so they don’t apply.