I wrote the title this way because it's a question people ask.

> how could it be?

It can be because Rust is also a low-level language that's focused on performance. C does not have any inherent reason to be the fastest language.

> depends on how you look at it, but in general, it's hard to say.

Yep! I don't think there's a clear answer here. But that, in and of itself, is a useful result.