The pyc file contains ...

Question

Options

• Aa Python interpreter.
• BPython source code.
• Ccompiled Python bytecode.
• Da Python compiler.

• A
  4% (2)
• B
  6% (3)
• C
  77% (36)
• D
  13% (6)

Explanation

When Python runs a .py file, it first compiles the source code into bytecode - a lower-level, platform-independent representation - and caches it in a .pyc file so subsequent runs can skip the compilation step and load faster. This is why C is correct: .pyc files store compiled Python bytecode, not raw source.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A (interpreter): CPython (the interpreter) is a separate executable (python.exe/python3), not stored in .pyc files.
• B (source code): Source code lives in .py files; .pyc is the compiled output of that source.
• D (compiler): The compiler is part of the Python runtime itself, not packaged into .pyc files.

Memory tip: Think of .pyc as "Python compiled" - the c suffix literally stands for compiled bytecode, just like how C compilers produce .o object files from .c source files.

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