Where in memory is a string usually stored when defined with quotes in the code?

Strings defined in code using quotes (string literals) in Java are usually stored in a special string pool — the String Pool. This pool is located in a memory area called Metaspace in modern JVM versions (before Java 7 — in PermGen).

The string pool allows the JVM to store only one copy of each unique string constant, which saves memory and speeds up string comparison by reference.

Example:

String s1 = "hello";
String s2 = "hello";
System.out.println(s1 == s2); // true, both references point to the same object in the string pool

Thus, a string defined in code is usually stored in the string pool in the JVM's metaspace.