Is there a way to compile only a single contract with hardhat?

what do you mean exactly? 
You can put all the code in one file, or use something like

- solidity engineer 
- decentralisation and privacy maxi
- kitesurfer

what do you mean exactly? 
You can put all the code in one file, or use something like https://hardhat.org/hardhat-runner/docs/advanced/flattening

No, when having multiple contracts in the repo, I want to compile just single contract file instead of all contract files

hmm doesnt seem to be an out-of-the-box feature, maybe you can try something like

hmm doesnt seem to be an out-of-the-box feature, maybe you can try something like https://github.com/NomicFoundation/hardhat/issues/2306#issuecomment-1039452928