 Solution

The image of a linear map $\mathrm{im}(ST)=S(\mathrm{im}T)$ lies inside $\mathrm{im}S$. Therefore $r(ST)\le r(S)$. Also $S$ restricted to $\mathrm{im}T$ cannot have rank of a linear map greater than its domain's dimension, so $r(ST)\le \dim \mathrm{im}T=r(T)$. ThusEquivalently, apply the rank-nullity theorem to that restriction: $r(ST)=r(T)-\dim (\mathrm{im}T\cap \ker S)\le r(T)$. This proof keeps track of the intermediate vector subspace, rather than assuming an invertible factor.