STRIP_OUTER_ARRAY should be enabled when variant data exceeds 16 MB.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Only if the data is uncompressed
• D. Only with JSON data

Answer: (A)

When you’re dealing with large JSON-like data stored as a VARIANT, removing the top-level array wrapper can make processing more efficient. STRIP_OUTER_ARRAY tells Snowflake to drop that outer array when flattening or querying the data. If the variant payload is large (exceeding 16 MB), stripping the outer array reduces the amount of structure Snowflake has to traverse and store, which can improve performance and avoid extra overhead during extraction of inner fields. That’s why enabling it is the best approach for large, root-level arrays.

It isn’t about compression versus uncompressed data, nor is it limited to specifically JSON-format alone; it’s about the root structure of the variant and the size of the payload.