Shear walls are vertical reinforced concrete walls that resist lateral forces like wind and earthquakes. They provide strength and stiffness to control lateral building movement. Shear walls are classified into different types including simple rectangular, coupled, rigid frame, framed with infill, column supported, and core type walls. Design of shear walls involves reviewing the building layout, determining loads, estimating earthquake forces, analyzing the structural system, and designing for flexural and shear strengths with proper reinforcement detailing. The behavior of shear walls under seismic loading depends on their height to width ratio, with squat walls experiencing more shear deformation and slender walls undergoing primarily bending deformation.