Explore a comprehensive guest lecture on Snowflake Database Architecture from the CMU Intro to Database Systems course. Gain insights from industry experts Bowei Chen, Kavinder Dhaliwal, and Libo Wang as they delve into cloud-based solutions, Snowflake's unique architecture, and software development philosophy. Learn about cloud storage, query execution, data engine, cloud services layer, and service management. Discover the intricacies of metadata handling, concurrency control, and query compilation. Understand advanced optimization techniques such as pruning, constant folding, and workload optimization. Dive into query acceleration strategies and explore how Snowflake leverages cloud technologies to provide a robust database solution. This in-depth presentation offers valuable knowledge for database enthusiasts, students, and professionals looking to understand modern cloud-based database architectures.