What type of code does a compiler produce?

A compiler translates high-level programming code written by developers into machine code, which is a low-level code understood directly by a computer's CPU. This machine code consists of binary instructions that the hardware can execute directly, allowing programs to run effectively on the machine.

While bytecode is generated by some languages that use an intermediate representation, machine code is the final output produced by a typical compiler for languages like C or C++. Source code refers to the original code written by the programmer, and markup language is used for the structuring and presentation of content, such as HTML or XML, rather than for direct execution by the CPU.