When is reclustering triggered?

• A. Only if the table would benefit
• B. On a fixed schedule
• C. After every DML operation
• D. Always when data is loaded

Answer: (A)

Reclustering is a targeted maintenance action that reorganizes data to improve how well a table aligns with its clustering keys. Snowflake’s automatic clustering evaluates whether reorganizing partitions would actually speed up queries. Because this is a compute-intensive operation, it only runs when it would provide a real benefit. If changes to the data don’t improve pruning or scan performance, reclustering isn’t triggered to avoid unnecessary cost.

So this option is best because it captures the idea that reclustering is driven by potential performance gains, not by a fixed schedule, a DML event, or every data load. If new data or updates don’t degrade clustering quality, there’s no need to recluster.