intro practice · system design prompt
STAR: leadership story
Write a 4-paragraph STAR (Situation / Task / Action / Result) about a time you led without authority. Quantify the result.
The mechanism
Leadership without authority is getting people aligned on an outcome when you cannot order them to do it. The real signal is sustained behavior change in others over weeks — not the meeting where they nodded along.
Expected evidence
starStory() returns { situation, task, action, result, metric: { name, unit, before, after }, influenceTactic (how you got compliance without authority) }. The checker enforces structure only: four distinct sections of 20+ words, action the longest, 150+ words total, before ≠ after, and the result section must name the metric and state its after value. Aim for 250-350 words — that is the interview bar, not the checker’s.Try this drill in the practice workspace →
Hints when you need them
- Leadership without authority = persuasion + alignment, not org charts.
- Cut adjectives; keep verbs and numbers.