Where are shell variables stored?

Shell variables are stored in the memory of the shell process that is running. When you create a shell variable, it exists in the environment of that specific shell session. If you want to make a shell variable persistent across sessions, you typically define it in a shell configuration file (like .bashrc, .zshrc, or .profile), which is executed each time a new shell session starts. For system-wide variables, they can be stored in files like /etc/profile or /etc/environment.