Which query will use warehouse credits?

• A. SELECT MAX(ID) FROM MYTABLE
• B. SELECT MIN(ID) FROM MYTABLE
• C. SELECT COUNT(*) FROM MYTABLE
• D. SELECT MAX(ID) FROM MYTABLE GROUP BY ID

Answer: (D)

Grouping data introduces extra processing: the engine must partition the rows by the values of a column and then compute an aggregate for each group, producing a row per distinct value. In Snowflake, warehouse credits reflect compute time and resources used by a virtual warehouse. That grouping step adds sorting/partitioning and per-group work, so a query with a GROUP BY clause typically consumes more compute credits than a simple scalar aggregation.

The other options perform a single scalar result without grouping—the engine can often compute MAX, MIN, or a row count in a single pass without the overhead of dividing the data into groups. So the query that includes GROUP BY ID is the one that clearly uses warehouse credits due to the extra grouping work.