Question About References

References are typically contacted after a decision to hire has been made. I have no idea if mine have been called or how long they may have been spoken to.

I've been a reference for others, and at times, just replied to a questionnaire type of email about them.

Usually references are called after your interview when the facility is pretty sure they want to extend you an offer. They're not going to waste time calling references before an interview, they might hate you after the interview and know they're not going to move forward.

I would gather most people don't know how long the phone call to check their own references lasted. I have never followed up with one of my references to ask "how long did you talk with the HR person for?" For my current job, references were done by email. They sent an email survey out to each of my references then they called past employers to verify employment.