I talked to a recruiter first on the phone. That call was scheduled out about 2 weeks from when I applied. Then, I had to take a skills assessment. After that, the hiring manager reached out to schedule a Zoom interview. About a week and a half after my Zoom interview, the recruiter reached out for references. The references have to complete a survey that gets emailed to them. Four of my references filled it out over a holiday weekend. I didn't hear anything for a few days, so I reached out to the recruiter only to be told they were moving forward with other candidates. I do not think that you should check references on candidates who are not your top choice. It's a horrible practice, as it's time consuming for references to fill out the survey and embarrassing to have to tell them you didn't get the job.