The correct option is It condenses every commit from the pull request into a single commit and merges that into the target branch.

This choice takes all commits from the pull request and combines them into one commit that is added to the target branch. It keeps the history linear and avoids creating a merge commit with two parents. The individual commits from the feature branch are not preserved on the base branch and the pull request is then marked as merged.

It integrates the pull request using a fast-forward so no merge commit is created is incorrect because a fast forward preserves all original commits and simply moves the branch pointer, while a squash merge creates a brand new single commit that replaces the series of commits in the base branch.

It bypasses required reviews so changes can land directly in the main branch is incorrect because required reviews and other protections are enforced by branch protection rules and the merge method does not override those requirements.

It drops all commits from the pull request and leaves the default branch unchanged is incorrect because squash merging does not discard the work. It adds one new commit to the target branch that contains the combined changes.

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