Typically as default, categories, products and versions will be sorted based on three corresponding config settings:

frontend.categories.display.sortdefault
frontend.products.display.sortdefault
frontend.versions.display.sortdefault

The sort direction (ascending or descending) is determined by these config settings:

frontend.categories.display.sortdirection
frontend.products.display.sortdirection
frontend.versions.display.sortdirection

These are the 'global' settings. When you create new categories and products, they will default to using these config settings for sorting the child categories, products and versions under them.