A leading question is one that contains the answer you are expecting inside it. Something like: did that experience make you feel isolated? The subject says yes or no and you have learned almost nothing.
Why beginners default to leading questions
They feel empathetic. They signal that you have done your research. They make the conversation feel collaborative. None of that makes them useful for gathering information.
When you lead a subject toward an answer, you are not reporting what they think. You are confirming what you already thought, which is a different thing entirely and a problem that shows up clearly in print.
What the challenge looked like in practice
Early in my work contributing to a news and information portal, an editor returned a transcript and circled six questions in a row. Every single one was leading. The subject had agreed with all of them. The interview contained no actual information about what the person believed independently.
A better structure for questions
Open questions starting with what, how, or describe tend to resist leading. They require the subject to generate content rather than react to yours.
Compare: did the process feel unfair? versus how did you experience the process? The second version produces an answer you could not have written before the interview. That is the version worth asking.