What do the python file extensions, .pyc .pyd .pyo stand for?

.py: This is normally the input source code that you’ve written. .pyc: This is the compiled bytecode. If you import a module, python will build a *.pyc file that contains the bytecode to make importing it again later easier (and faster). .pyo: This was a file format used before Python 3.5 for *.pyc files that were created with optimizations … Read more

If Python is interpreted, what are .pyc files?

They contain byte code, which is what the Python interpreter compiles the source to. This code is then executed by Python’s virtual machine. Python’s documentation explains the definition like this: Python is an interpreted language, as opposed to a compiled one, though the distinction can be blurry because of the presence of the bytecode compiler. This means … Read more