Which statement best describes a snapshot in storage?

• A. A snapshot is a copy of the source data at a point in time.
• B. A snapshot duplicates the entire dataset every time.
• C. A snapshot is used only for archiving offline.
• D. A snapshot requires long time to create.

Answer: (A)

A snapshot captures the state of data at a specific moment. It gives you a point-in-time view of the data so you can restore or reference that exact state later. In most storage systems, this is done without copying all the data immediately. Instead, the snapshot creates metadata and references to the original data blocks, using techniques like copy-on-write or redirect-on-write. Only when data changes after the snapshot are new blocks allocated, which makes snapshots fast to create and space-efficient.

This is why the option describing a snapshot as a full duplicate of the entire dataset isn’t accurate—snapshots don’t copy everything up front. They’re not limited to offline archiving, and they’re typically quick to establish rather than taking a long time.