A unilateral contract is defined by which of the following characteristics?

A unilateral contract is characterized primarily by the fact that only one party is bound to perform specific obligations, while the other party simply receives the benefit of that performance upon acceptance. This type of contract involves an offer made by one party, which can be accepted by the other party through performance of the specified act, rather than an exchange of mutual promises.

In the context of this question, only one party—the offeror—creates a legal obligation by offering something in exchange for the act of the other party, the offeree. Therefore, once the offeree performs the requested action, the contract becomes binding on the offeror.

This contrasts with mutual contracts where both parties have obligations to fulfill, which rules out the correct identification of a unilateral contract. Additionally, while benefits may be mutual in some aspects of contracts, the defining feature of a unilateral contract is the absence of mutual promises, which further aligns with the characteristic of only one party accepting obligations. The notion surrounding uncertain events also doesn’t define a unilateral contract specifically, as that pertains more to conditional contracts rather than to the essence of unilateral obligations.