Under the standard scaling policy, when will a multi-cluster Snowflake warehouse shut down?

• A. After 2 to 3 consecutive successful checks (performed at 1-minute intervals), which determine whether the load on the least-loaded cluster could be redistributed to the other clusters without spinning up the cluster again.
• B. After 5 to 6 consecutive successful checks (performed at 1-minute intervals), which determine whether the load on the least-loaded cluster could be redistributed to the other clusters without spinning up the cluster again.
• C. After 4 to 5 consecutive successful checks (performed at 1-minute intervals), which determine whether the load on the least-loaded cluster could be redistributed to the other clusters without spinning up the cluster again.
• D. Immediately after the first cluster starts.

Answer: (A)

Under the standard scaling policy, Snowflake scales in by checking whether the workload on the least-loaded cluster can be absorbed by the other clusters without starting a new one. If this condition is true for a couple of consecutive checks conducted at one-minute intervals, Snowflake will shut down one extra cluster to reduce costs and avoid unnecessary resource usage. This 2- to 3-consecutive-check window helps prevent premature or unstable scale-in while still responding when demand has clearly dropped. Waiting for more checks or acting immediately would either delay savings or cause unnecessary churn, so the threshold is two to three consecutive checks.