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What is the primary purpose of a materialized view in Snowflake?

  1. To reduce storage costs

  2. To improve query performance

  3. To enforce data governance

  4. To enable data replication

The correct answer is: To improve query performance

The primary purpose of a materialized view in Snowflake is to improve query performance. Materialized views store the results of a query physically, which allows the system to retrieve precomputed data quickly, rather than executing the underlying query each time it is needed. This can significantly reduce the time it takes to return results, especially for complex queries or large datasets. While there are benefits associated with materialized views—such as potentially lowering the overall query costs by reducing the resources needed for query processing—the main focus is on performance enhancement. This improvement in speed can be especially crucial in data analytics scenarios where timely access to insights is necessary. Options related to reducing storage costs, enforcing data governance, or enabling data replication do not capture the primary function of materialized views. Instead, those options relate to different aspects of data management or architectural design within Snowflake, serving purposes that do not align with the main capabilities of materialized views. In practice, the primary role of materialized views centers on optimizing how quickly users can access and analyze data.