How does EF Core communicate with SQL Server?

EF Core is an object-relational mapper (ORM). Application code builds LINQ queries and entity operations, EF Core translates supported LINQ expressions into SQL, sends commands through the configured SQL Server provider, and materializes returned rows into .NET objects.

EF Core does not eliminate the need to understand SQL Server. Developers still need to understand generated SQL, indexes, transactions, query plans, data types, concurrency, and database constraints because ORM-generated queries execute against the same database engine.