How are data organized inside standard collections in programming languages?

In Python, standard collections are structured as follows:

• list — a dynamic array that stores references to objects. It allows fast access by index and efficient appending of elements at the end.

• tuple — an immutable list, similar to a list but with a fixed size and immutable content.

• dict — a hash table where keys are stored with hashes for quick value lookup. In newer Python versions, it maintains the insertion order.

• set — a collection of unique elements, implemented based on a hash table for fast lookup and membership testing.

All these collections store references to objects, not the objects themselves, which allows for efficient memory management and working with different data types.