Core Architecture
A food delivery platform requires at minimum 6 microservices: Customer App, Restaurant App, Delivery Partner App, Order Management Service, Real-Time Tracking Service, and Payment Service. Each communicates via REST APIs with WebSocket for real-time updates.
Tech Stack Recommendation
Customer/Delivery apps: Flutter (single codebase for iOS+Android). Backend: Node.js with Express for API services, Socket.io for real-time. Database: PostgreSQL for orders/users, MongoDB for menus/restaurants, Redis for sessions and caching. Maps: Google Maps Platform.
Real-Time Order Tracking
GPS tracking requires the delivery partner app to emit location every 5-10 seconds via WebSocket. The backend aggregates this and pushes updates to the customer app. Implement geofencing to automatically trigger "Arriving Soon" notifications when the delivery partner is within 500m.
Payment & Payout System
Integrate Razorpay or PayU for customer payments. For restaurant and delivery partner payouts, use Razorpay Route or PayU PayOut for automated settlement. Implement a wallet system for faster repeat orders and cashback promotions.
Scaling Considerations
Food delivery apps have extreme peak loads during lunch (12-2PM) and dinner (7-9PM). Design for 10x normal traffic during peaks. Use horizontal scaling, CDN for menu images, and pre-compute popular restaurant rankings to reduce database load during peaks.
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