Which statement about Snowpipe staging steps is correct?

• A. You stage files temporarily before loading into target table
• B. You stage files after loading
• C. Staging is optional
• D. You don't use a stage with Snowpipe

Answer: (A)

Snowpipe ingests data by pulling files from a stage into a target table. The files have to be placed in a stage before Snowpipe can load them, and the stage can be an internal Snowflake stage or an external one (like S3, Azure, or GCS). This is why staging first is the correct approach: Snowpipe continually watches the stage and loads new files as they appear. Staging after loading would contradict how Snowpipe operates, since there would be nothing for it to load from at the time of ingestion. Staging isn’t optional, and you do use a stage with Snowpipe, because the stage is the source Snowpipe monitors to perform the automated loads.