Did the magicians in Egypt do real magic to make snakes?

This is perhaps the best known example in the Bible of the Bible record reporting actual magic, and reporting it in terms as if it was real:

¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the Lord had commanded; Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. ¹¹ Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts. ¹² Each one threw down his staff, and they became snakes, but Aaron’s staff swallowed up theirs. (Exodus 7:10-12 NRSV)

However the overall teaching that there is no power except God’s (Exodus 4:11, Deuteronomy 32:39, Isaiah 45:7 etc). This and other teaching against magic indicates that these magicians were fakes, like other sorcerers and wizards in the Bible. It is somewhat parallel to the fraudulent witch of Endor pretending to see a ghost that Saul could not see. What else would anyone expect of a woman who ‘saw’ ghosts for a living?

It’s also notable that the magicians bow out when the level of magic (or in fact magician-craft) still falls far short of the magic exhibited today in shows such as performed at Las Vegas.

So, no. The magicians in Egypt did not do real magic to make snakes. This belongs in the same category as superstition about ghosts and demons.

See also the related question here. What does the Bible say about fortune tellers and crystal readers?