Teams qualify for national rounds through several stages of non-televised tournaments held at high schools throughout Canada during the year which are known as Schoolreach.

The first national Reach for the Top tournament took place in 1965, and was won by Vincent Massey Collegiate Institute from Etobicoke, Ontario.

Shelagh Rogers, later a host for CBC Radio, was a contestant on the original broadcasts of the show.

The CBC stopped airing Reach for the Top in 1985, but the contest continues to be played under the aegis of Reach for the Top Inc. CFPL-TV, the former CBC affiliate station in London, continued to air local competitions for several years, and hosted the provincial and national competitions.

From 2000 to 2008, the national finals were aired by Canadian Learning Television (now OWN: the Oprah Winfrey Network), hosted by Graham Neil of CFRN-TV in Edmonton.

Until 2009, games at the provincial level were broadcast on stations unique to their respective provinces, among them Ontario on TVO with Nicole Stamp of TVOKids (and produced and directed by Sidney M. Cohen), British Columbia with Tamara Stanners on Knowledge, and Alberta with Graham Neil on Access.

In 1985, Reach for the Top Inc., a private company, was established by Sandy Stewart, with agreement from the CBC.

[2] Schoolreach is organized among the different school boards in Canada, and monthly tournaments are played, culminating in a district final each spring.

Reach for the Top and Schoolreach were then taken over by Paulus Productions Inc. under the direction of Paul Russell and Robert Jeffrey.

Competitions continued after the cancellation of the program, and teams from other francophone countries around the world often participated.

Reach questions include "snappers" that open and close each round of gameplay, which can be answered by any of the four players on either team.

In practice, because the first year of college is mostly equivalent to Grade 12 in other Canadian provinces, these players have been allowed.

[citation needed] Nicole Stamp, who was the host of Reach For The Top's Ontario Championships from 2004 to 2009, is also an alumna of Richview Collegiate.

[4] Lorne Jenken High School in Barrhead, Alberta, which won in 1973 and made six other nationals appearances in the 1970s, was considered "the series' most successful competitors" in the 1985 edition of the Canadian Encyclopedia.

Reach for the Top has been criticized by some due to concerns about question writing quality, expensive registration fees, and tournament structure.

Following is a full list of national champions of Reach for the Top since its inception in 1965, as published on their official website.