soql – Is it required to use the Developer Console to query data from Apex?

Here’s what I found:

You can query your object data directly from Apex either with the Developer Console in Salesforce or VS Code. However, using VS Code provides several advantages over the Developer Console.

With VS Code, you can develop your Apex code and LWC components in a local development environment and deploy them to your Salesforce org. This allows you to compare code changes, version control your code, and collaborate with other developers more easily.

The file extension for the apex file is: .cls