Answer: Cloud Services

The result cache in Snowflake stores the results of previously executed queries. When a query is served from the result cache, it bypasses the need for data retrieval and computation, as the results are already available. This means the Cloud Services layer is always used because it manages metadata, query optimization, security, and result caching. The other layers are not always leveraged: Metadata (A) is part of Cloud Services, Data Storage (B) is bypassed since no new data is read, and Compute (C) is not used because the query results are already cached and don't require reprocessing. The community discussion, with 100% consensus and upvoted comments referencing Snowflake documentation, confirms that Cloud Services is the correct answer.

Author: LeetQuiz Editorial Team