A .pyc file is a compiled bytecode file created by the Python interpreter. When a Python script (.py file) is executed, the interpreter first compiles it into bytecode, which is a lower-level, platform-independent representation of the code. This bytecode is then executed by the Python Virtual Machine (PVM). The .pyc file stores this compiled bytecode, allowing the interpreter to skip the compilation step on subsequent executions of the same script, as long as the .py file hasn't been modified since the .pyc file was created. This significantly speeds up the execution time, especially for larger projects with many modules. The .pyc files are automatically generated by the Python interpreter when a module is imported. The name of the .pyc file is derived from the name of the corresponding .py file. For example, if you have a file named 'my_module.py', the compiled bytecode will be stored in 'my_module.pyc'. These files are not meant to be edited directly, as they contain machine-readable bytecode, not human-readable source code. They are automatically managed by the Python interpreter and are typically located in a '__pycache__' directory.