Can Python be considered a language that is compiled before execution?

Python cannot be called a classic compiled language like C or Java. It is an interpreted language, but its source code is first compiled into bytecode (files with the .pyc extension), which is then executed by the Python Virtual Machine (PVM). This compilation process occurs automatically and transparently to the user before execution, but the bytecode is not machine code, rather an intermediate representation.

Thus, Python is a language with intermediate compilation into bytecode, which is then interpreted. This differs from traditional compilation into machine code, but it is not purely an interpretation of the source text.