AutoTrader Scraper: A Scalable, Distributed System for Millions of UK Car Listings

A sophisticated distributed web scraping system for comprehensive car listing data

Project Overview

A sophisticated distributed web scraping system designed to collect and process comprehensive car listing data from AutoTrader UK. The project demonstrates advanced web scraping techniques, distributed system architecture, and efficient data processing.

Technical Stack

Core Technologies

  • Python 3.10+
  • DrissionPage (primary)
  • SeleniumBase (fallback)
  • RabbitMQ
  • PostgreSQL
  • Docker & Docker Compose
  • Peewee ORM

Additional Tools

  • Flask (proxy rotation API)
  • Xvfb (headless browser)
  • Chrome WebDriver

System Architecture

Producer Service

URL Generation & Task Distribution

↓

RabbitMQ Queue

Message Broker

↓

Scraper Workers

Browser Automation

Scraper Workers

Browser Automation

↓

PostgreSQL Database

Data Storage

Scraping Process

1. URL Generation

Smart filter combinations

↓

2. Proxy Rotation

IP management

↓

3. Browser Automation

Cloudflare bypass

↓

4. Data Extraction

Structured parsing

↓

5. Data Storage

Database persistence

Key Features

Advanced Architecture

  • Hybrid scraping approach
  • Browser pool management
  • Proxy rotation system
  • Producer-Consumer architecture

Performance & Scalability

  • Distributed processing
  • Containerized deployment
  • Efficient message queuing
  • Resource optimization

Technical Challenges Overcome

Website Limitations

Successfully bypassed result limiting through smart filter optimization and overcame Cloudflare protection with sophisticated browser automation.

Resource Management

Implemented efficient browser pooling, created a robust proxy rotation system, and optimized memory usage for large-scale data processing.

Scalability

Designed a distributed architecture with containerized deployment and implemented a scalable message queue system for reliable data processing.

Project Impact

  • Successfully scraped millions of car listings
  • Maintained high performance with minimal resource usage
  • Demonstrated production-ready scalability
  • Showcased advanced web scraping techniques

Client Testimonial

"I had a great experience working with Mohsine. He is very knowledgeable in extracting information from the web and has a lot of patience in problem solving. We will be working again with him for other projects."

- Michael, Project Manager

Key Metrics

2M+
Car Listings Scraped
99.9%
Success Rate
50+
Data Points per Listing
24/7
Continuous Operation

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