| Principle | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Microservices | Decouple services (auth, trip, pricing, location, etc.) |
| Pub/Sub (Kafka) | Decouple high-volume real-time streams (e.g. GPS updates) |
| Low Latency | Location-sensitive services, geo-sharding |
| Strong Consistency | Required for payments, trip state |
| Eventual Consistency | Used where acceptable (e.g. map history) |
| Horizontal Scalability | Key for location tracking, trip processing |
We’ll categorize the system into:
| Client App | Description |
|---|---|
| Rider App | User interface to book, pay, track rides |
| Driver App | Interface for trip requests, navigation, earnings |
| Web Admin Panel | For support, driver ops, fraud monitoring |
| Service | Description |
|---|---|
| Auth Service | Sign-up/login with phone/email/social |
| User Profile Service | Manages rider/driver data |
| Trip Service | Manages trip lifecycle: request → assign → start → end |
| Driver Service | Handles driver state (available, busy, offline) |
| Matching Service | Matches rider with best driver (within X km) |
| Pricing Service | Computes trip fare, surge pricing |
| Payment Service | Payment gateway integration, wallet, receipts |
| Rating Service | Stores and analyzes ratings & feedback |
| Notifications | SMS, push, email alerts |
| Ride History | Trip logs for users, analytics, export |
| Fraud Service | Detects fake accounts, collusion, abuse |
| Component | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Location Service | Ingests and stores real-time GPS updates |
| Geo Index | Spatial index (Uber’s H3, or Quadtrees in Redis) |
| Live Trip Tracker | Stream GPS, detect delays/deviations |
| Kafka / Pulsar | Streams GPS and trip events |
| WebSocket Gateway | Bi-directional comms for live tracking |
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Map Service | Uses Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, or own tiles |
| Route Engine | Computes ETA, optimal route |
| Surge Engine | Calculates real-time demand/supply for surge zones |
| Geo-Fencing | Region restrictions, dynamic pricing boundaries |
| Data Type | Tech Stack |
|---|---|
| User Data | PostgreSQL / MySQL (sharded by user ID) |
| Trips | Cassandra / DynamoDB for high write throughput |
| Locations | Kafka stream → Redis (for current location) → S3/archive (history) |
| Geo-Index | Redis + H3/Quadtree or Google S2 |
| Payments | Relational DB + integration with Stripe, PayPal, etc. |
| Caches | Redis (driver lookup, surge zones, fare estimates) |
| Blob Storage | S3 for receipts, profile images, documents |
| Analytics | Snowflake / BigQuery / ClickHouse |
1. Rider hits "Request Ride"
2. Trip Service creates a trip (state: PENDING)
3. Matching Service queries nearby drivers (Geo index in Redis)
4. Push trip offer to selected driver via WebSocket
5. Driver accepts: Trip state changes → ASSIGNED
6. Real-time updates flow via Kafka:
- Driver location, trip events, status changes
7. On trip end:
- Trip saved to DB
- Pricing calculated
- Payment processed
- Rating triggered
| Strategy | Use Case |
|---|---|
| Geo-Sharding | Split users/drivers based on geohash prefix |
| Region-Based Clusters | Run separate clusters per continent |
| Global Kafka Cluster | Kafka clusters per region (async replication) |
| Redis Partitioning | Driver location indexed by geohash key ranges |
| Failover DNS | Geo DNS routes to closest region with fallback |
| Layer | Tooling |
|---|---|
| Authentication | JWT tokens, device fingerprinting |
| Rate Limiting | API Gateway or Redis token buckets |
| Encryption | TLS for all comms, AES for stored data |
| KYC Verification | Third-party services for driver documents |
| Fraud Detection | Heuristic + ML-based anomaly detection |
+-------------------+ +------------------+
| Rider App (iOS) | <---------> | API Gateway |
+-------------------+ +--------+---------+
|
v
+-------------------------------+
| Core Backend Services |
|-------------------------------|
| Auth Service |
| Trip Service |
| Matching Service |
| Pricing Service |
| Driver Management |
| Rating Service |
+-------------------------------+
|
v
+--------------------------------------------------+
| Real-Time & Event Processing |
|--------------------------------------------------|
| Kafka (Trip Events, GPS) |
| Location Updater Service |
| WebSocket Gateway (push to riders & drivers) |
| Stream Processor (e.g. Flink/Spark Streaming) |
+--------------------------------------------------+
|
v
+------------------+ +-------------------+ +------------------+
| Redis | | Cassandra | | Postgres |
| (driver geohash) | | (trip events) | | (user/payment) |
+------------------+ +-------------------+ +------------------+
|
v
+-------------------------------+
| External Integrations |
|-------------------------------|
| Payment Gateway (Stripe, etc) |
| SMS / Email Notification |
| Map Routing API |
| KYC Services |
+-------------------------------+