DUPGS: Find Verified PG Near Delhi University

Overview

DUPGS is a trusted platform designed to help students quickly discover verified PG (Paying Guest) accommodations near Delhi University campuses. Built with a modern full-stack architecture, it focuses on providing transparency, trust, clarity, and ease of comparison for student housing.

Features

• Verified Listings: Workflow ensuring only legitimate properties are shown.
• Advanced Search & Filter: Quick shortlisting by distance, price, amenities, and gender restrictions.
• Student-Centric UI: Information architecture prioritizing what matters most to students (Wi-Fi, food, curfew).
• Map View: Geospatial visualization of properties relative to specific DU colleges.

Why I built this

Every year, thousands of students migrate to Delhi for university and face a chaotic, unorganized housing market filled with fake listings and hidden costs. I built DUPGS to bring transparency to this process, giving students a reliable tool to find safe, verified accommodations near their specific colleges.

Technical Stuff

Frontend

• Next.js: Leveraged for fast, SEO-friendly SSR pages essential for local search visibility.
• Tailwind CSS: Used to create a clean, trustworthy, and highly responsive user interface.

Backend

• Node.js: Powers the robust API layer for searching and listing management.
• MongoDB: Handles the flexible data structure required for diverse property amenities and details.
• AWS: Utilized for reliable hosting and scalable cloud infrastructure.

Core Features Implementation

Search and Filtering

• Implemented complex MongoDB aggregation pipelines to handle multi-parameter filtering (price + location + amenities) efficiently.

Verification Workflow

• Built a secure admin portal for property owners to submit documents and for moderators to approve listings before they go live.

Technical Challenges & Solutions

Challenge 1: Geospatial Searching

• Problem: Quickly finding PGs within a specific radius of various college campuses.
• Solution: Utilized MongoDB's geospatial indexing (2dsphere) to perform highly efficient location-based queries and sorting by distance.

Challenge 2: Trust and Data Structuring

• Problem: Standardizing messy real estate data from various owners into a clean, comparable format.
• Solution: Designed a strict data schema with Zod validation on the backend to enforce standardized data entry for all listings.

Performance Optimizations

• Implemented Static Site Generation (SSG) for static college pages and Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) for property listings to ensure instant load times.
• Optimized high-resolution property images using AWS S3 and Next.js Image component for fast delivery.

Future Technical Improvements

• Integrate an in-app chat system for direct communication between students and PG owners.
• Add VR/360-degree photo support for virtual property tours.
• Implement a review and rating system verified by actual tenants.