Answer: PARSE_JSON

The question asks which semi-structured data function interprets an input string as a JSON document and returns a VARIANT value. PARSE_JSON is specifically designed for this purpose - it takes a JSON string as input and returns a VARIANT data type containing the parsed JSON structure. The community discussion shows 100% consensus on answer A (PARSE_JSON) with supporting documentation links. CHECK_JSON validates JSON syntax but returns a boolean, not a VARIANT. JSON_EXTRACT_PATH_TEXT extracts specific text values from JSON. PARSE_XML is for XML documents, not JSON.

Author: LeetQuiz Editorial Team