Can you explain the stages of the lifecycle of a PHP application from start to finish?

The lifecycle of a PHP application when processing a single HTTP request typically involves the following stages:

1. Initialization — the web server receives the request and starts the PHP interpreter.
2. Script loading — PHP reads and compiles the PHP code into bytecode.
3. Code execution — the interpreter executes the compiled code, processing the application logic, connecting necessary modules, working with the database, and forming a response.
4. Sending the response — the generated HTML or other content is sent back to the client.
5. Termination — resources are released, connections are closed, and the script ends.

Each request is handled separately, without maintaining state between requests unless a session or caching is specifically implemented.