May a reference be more efficient than a pointer?

Question

I'm wondering whether sometimes (depends on the platform or compiler or context in code etc) a reference can be more efficient than a pointer?

Answer 1

May a reference be more efficient than a pointer?

Nopes! Not necessarily. The Standard doesn't say that either.

Most compilers implement reference mechanism via use of pointers. References were added to C++ to support operator overloading and not for efficiency.