Zephir stand for Ze(nd Engine) Ph(p) I(nt)r(mediate). It is used for creation and maintainability of extensions for PHP.

In the context of a Phalcon interview question, if you’re asked about Zephir, the correct answer would be:

Zephir is a high-level programming language specifically designed for building PHP extensions. It’s used in the development of the Phalcon PHP framework. Zephir offers a syntax similar to PHP but compiles to C code, providing better performance and efficiency compared to traditional PHP code. It enables developers to write PHP extensions more easily and efficiently, contributing to Phalcon’s speed and performance advantages over other PHP frameworks.