Answer: VARIANT

The Snowflake Kafka connector uses the VARIANT data type to store formatted message data in a single column. The VARIANT type is specifically designed to handle semi-structured data like JSON, Avro, or other formats that Kafka messages typically use. It allows Snowflake to store and query complex nested data structures efficiently while maintaining schema flexibility. The community discussion shows 100% consensus on answer D with upvoted comments confirming this is correct, and references to Snowflake's official documentation support this choice. Other options are unsuitable: ARRAY is for ordered lists, OBJECT is for key-value pairs but not as flexible as VARIANT for mixed data types, and VARCHAR would require parsing structured data as text strings.

Author: LeetQuiz Editorial Team