This document discusses using PySpark, SparkR and DataFrame APIs to perform efficient data processing with Apache Spark. It explains that while Python and R can be used with Spark, performance may be slower than Java and Scala since data needs to be transferred between the JVM and the non-JVM language runtime. DataFrame APIs allow working with data within the JVM, avoiding this overhead and providing near-native performance when using Python, R or other non-JVM languages. Examples demonstrate how to use DataFrames and SQL with filters to optimize performance before using user-defined functions that require data transfer. Ingesting data in a DataFrame-native format like Parquet is also recommended for efficiency.