diff --git a/lib/internal/url.js b/lib/internal/url.js
index 302d3fa08753a5..b59a1ff4dc21f2 100644
--- a/lib/internal/url.js
+++ b/lib/internal/url.js
@@ -1414,6 +1414,8 @@ const backslashRegEx = /\\/g;
 const newlineRegEx = /\n/g;
 const carriageReturnRegEx = /\r/g;
 const tabRegEx = /\t/g;
+const questionRegex = /\?/;
+const hashRegex = /#/;
 
 function encodePathChars(filepath) {
   if (StringPrototypeIncludes(filepath, '%'))
@@ -1431,8 +1433,8 @@ function encodePathChars(filepath) {
 }
 
 function pathToFileURL(filepath) {
-  const outURL = new URL('file://');
   if (isWindows && StringPrototypeStartsWith(filepath, '\\\\')) {
+    const outURL = new URL('file://');
     // UNC path format: \\server\share\resource
     const hostnameEndIndex = StringPrototypeIndexOf(filepath, '\\', 2);
     if (hostnameEndIndex === -1) {
@@ -1453,18 +1455,29 @@ function pathToFileURL(filepath) {
     outURL.hostname = domainToASCII(hostname);
     outURL.pathname = encodePathChars(
       RegExpPrototypeSymbolReplace(backslashRegEx, StringPrototypeSlice(filepath, hostnameEndIndex), '/'));
-  } else {
-    let resolved = path.resolve(filepath);
-    // path.resolve strips trailing slashes so we must add them back
-    const filePathLast = StringPrototypeCharCodeAt(filepath,
-                                                   filepath.length - 1);
-    if ((filePathLast === CHAR_FORWARD_SLASH ||
-         (isWindows && filePathLast === CHAR_BACKWARD_SLASH)) &&
-        resolved[resolved.length - 1] !== path.sep)
-      resolved += '/';
-    outURL.pathname = encodePathChars(resolved);
-  }
-  return outURL;
+    return outURL;
+  }
+  let resolved = path.resolve(filepath);
+  // path.resolve strips trailing slashes so we must add them back
+  const filePathLast = StringPrototypeCharCodeAt(filepath,
+                                                 filepath.length - 1);
+  if ((filePathLast === CHAR_FORWARD_SLASH ||
+       (isWindows && filePathLast === CHAR_BACKWARD_SLASH)) &&
+      resolved[resolved.length - 1] !== path.sep)
+    resolved += '/';
+
+  // Call encodePathChars first to avoid encoding % again for ? and #.
+  resolved = encodePathChars(resolved);
+
+  // Question and hash character should be included in pathname.
+  // Therefore, encoding is required to eliminate parsing them in different states.
+  // This is done as an optimization to not creating a URL instance and
+  // later triggering pathname setter, which impacts performance
+  if (StringPrototypeIncludes(resolved, '?'))
+    resolved = RegExpPrototypeSymbolReplace(questionRegex, resolved, '%3F');
+  if (StringPrototypeIncludes(resolved, '#'))
+    resolved = RegExpPrototypeSymbolReplace(hashRegex, resolved, '%23');
+  return new URL(`file://${resolved}`);
 }
 
 function toPathIfFileURL(fileURLOrPath) {