Answer: PARSE_JSON

The correct answer is C (PARSE_JSON) because this function is specifically designed to parse JSON-formatted strings into Snowflake's VARIANT data type. According to Snowflake documentation and the community discussion with 100% consensus and upvoted comments, PARSE_JSON converts a string containing JSON data into a VARIANT value that can be stored in VARIANT columns. Option A (FLATTEN) is used to extract nested data from VARIANT columns, not to parse strings. Option B (CHECK_JSON) validates JSON strings but doesn't convert them to VARIANT. Option D (TO_VARIANT) is not a standard Snowflake function for JSON parsing.

Author: LeetQuiz Editorial Team