diff --git a/src/pages/exam/QuestionBankPage.tsx b/src/pages/exam/QuestionBankPage.tsx
index 10f6bd8..eb85e74 100644
--- a/src/pages/exam/QuestionBankPage.tsx
+++ b/src/pages/exam/QuestionBankPage.tsx
@@ -11,6 +11,27 @@ import RadioButtonUncheckedIcon from '@mui/icons-material/RadioButtonUnchecked';
 
 import { examRepository } from '../../services/exam/examRepository';
 import type { BankQuestion, BankResponse } from '../../types/exam.types';
+import { cropQuestion } from './bankCrops';
+
+const QuestionCrop: React.FC<{ q: BankQuestion }> = ({ q }) => {
+  const [src, setSrc] = useState<string | null>(null);
+  const [done, setDone] = useState(false);
+  useEffect(() => {
+    let alive = true;
+    cropQuestion({ templateId: q.template_id, page: q.page, bounds: q.bounds })
+      .then((d) => { if (alive) { setSrc(d); setDone(true); } })
+      .catch(() => { if (alive) setDone(true); });
+    return () => { alive = false; };
+  }, [q.template_id, q.page, q.bounds]);
+  if (src) {
+    return <Box component="img" src={src} alt="" loading="lazy" sx={{ width: '100%', maxHeight: 150, objectFit: 'cover', objectPosition: 'top', display: 'block', bgcolor: '#fff', borderBottom: 1, borderColor: 'divider' }} />;
+  }
+  return (
+    <Box sx={{ height: 56, display: 'flex', alignItems: 'center', justifyContent: 'center', bgcolor: 'action.hover', borderBottom: 1, borderColor: 'divider', color: 'text.disabled', fontSize: 12 }}>
+      {done ? 'no preview' : <CircularProgress size={16} />}
+    </Box>
+  );
+};
 
 const QuestionBankPage: React.FC = () => {
   const navigate = useNavigate();
@@ -133,6 +154,7 @@ const QuestionBankPage: React.FC = () => {
               return (
                 <Card key={q.id} variant="outlined" sx={{ borderColor: on ? 'primary.main' : 'divider', borderWidth: on ? 2 : 1 }}>
                   <CardActionArea onClick={() => toggle(q.id)}>
+                    <QuestionCrop q={q} />
                     <CardContent sx={{ pb: 1.5 }}>
                       <Box sx={{ display: 'flex', alignItems: 'center', justifyContent: 'space-between', mb: 0.5 }}>
                         <Typography variant="subtitle2" fontWeight={700}>Q{q.label ?? '?'}</Typography>
diff --git a/src/pages/exam/bankCrops.ts b/src/pages/exam/bankCrops.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..20a65a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/pages/exam/bankCrops.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+// Client-side crop thumbnails for the question bank. A bank question carries `bounds` (x,y,w,h) in the
+// 780px stacked-page canvas space and a `page` number; the source PDF renders at that same 780px width
+// (pdfLoader), so a thumbnail is just the page image cropped to the bounds. Renders each template's PDF
+// once (cached) and reuses it for all of that template's questions. No API/infra change.
+import { examRepository } from '../../services/exam/examRepository';
+import { loadPdfPageImages, PdfPageImage } from './setup/pdfLoader';
+
+const renderCache = new Map<string, Promise<PdfPageImage[]>>();
+const imageCache = new Map<string, Promise<HTMLImageElement>>();
+
+function templateRender(templateId: string): Promise<PdfPageImage[]> {
+  let p = renderCache.get(templateId);
+  if (!p) {
+    p = examRepository.getTemplateSourcePdf(templateId).then((bytes) => loadPdfPageImages(bytes));
+    p.catch(() => renderCache.delete(templateId)); // let a failed render be retried
+    renderCache.set(templateId, p);
+  }
+  return p;
+}
+
+function loadImage(src: string): Promise<HTMLImageElement> {
+  let p = imageCache.get(src);
+  if (!p) {
+    p = new Promise<HTMLImageElement>((resolve, reject) => {
+      const img = new Image();
+      img.onload = () => resolve(img);
+      img.onerror = () => reject(new Error('image decode failed'));
+      img.src = src;
+    });
+    imageCache.set(src, p);
+  }
+  return p;
+}
+
+export interface CropInput {
+  templateId: string;
+  page: number | null;
+  bounds: Record<string, number> | null;
+}
+
+// Returns a PNG data-URL cropped to the question, or null if it can't be produced (no bounds/page/PDF).
+export async function cropQuestion(input: CropInput, maxWidth = 320): Promise<string | null> {
+  const { templateId, page, bounds } = input;
+  if (!bounds || !page) return null;
+  const pages = await templateRender(templateId);
+  const pageImg = pages.find((pg) => pg.pageNumber === page);
+  if (!pageImg) return null;
+
+  // stacked y-offset of this page (bounds.y is absolute across the vertically-stacked pages)
+  let yTop = 0;
+  for (const pg of pages) { if (pg.pageNumber === page) break; yTop += pg.height; }
+
+  const sx = Math.max(0, Math.round(bounds.x ?? 0));
+  const sy = Math.max(0, Math.round((bounds.y ?? 0) - yTop));
+  const sw = Math.min(Math.round(bounds.w ?? pageImg.width), pageImg.width - sx);
+  const sh = Math.min(Math.round(bounds.h ?? 80), pageImg.height - sy);
+  if (sw <= 1 || sh <= 1) return null;
+
+  const img = await loadImage(pageImg.src);
+  const scale = Math.min(1, maxWidth / sw);
+  const canvas = document.createElement('canvas');
+  canvas.width = Math.max(1, Math.round(sw * scale));
+  canvas.height = Math.max(1, Math.round(sh * scale));
+  const ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
+  if (!ctx) return null;
+  ctx.drawImage(img, sx, sy, sw, sh, 0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
+  return canvas.toDataURL('image/png');
+}