Even if you have no intention of becoming a PHP core developer or creating a PECL extension, cursory knowledge of PHP's inner workings can prove useful. This session will examine the lifecycle of a PHP request and equip you with essential knowledge and tools that can be used to diagnose the occasional segfault or language bug, decipher what that poorly documented SPL class actually does, and confidently answer why a PHP or C implementation is most warranted for a given problem.